
Victoria
The best thing about Victoria isn’t actually its technical prowess—it’s the lead performance from the mesmerizing Laia Costa as the title character.
The best thing about Victoria isn’t actually its technical prowess—it’s the lead performance from the mesmerizing Laia Costa as the title character.
As a piece of social satire, Knock Knock winds up being not just toothless but anticlimactic.
"The Ballad of Narayama" is a Japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. What a space it opens…
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A NYFF report on Don Cheadle's directorial debut, "Miles Ahead."
A NYFF report on "Carol," "The Assassin" and "Right Now, Wrong Then."
An interview with Joshua Abrams, composer of "Life Itself."
A report about Chaz Ebert's upcoming appearance on OWN's "Where Are They Now?" program.
A FFC review of "The Look of Silence."
A review of "A Girl at My Door".
On the set of "The Knick"; Swedish cinema gives women a bigger role; When Amazon dies; Stories of "Star Wars" extras; Chatting with Abi Morgan.
Eight films to check out before Guillermo Del Toro's "Crimson Peak" comes out Friday.
Austin, Texas, has never looked more unlovely, and its residents more clueless, than in "Harmony and Me," a funny, wry mumblecore comedy by Bob Byington. Remember Richard Linklater's "Waking Life," about a curious soul who explored Austin encountering one fascinating and original person after another? Harmony, the hero of this film, doesn't know a single fascinating person and never visits a part of town that doesn't look like an anonymous suburb.
You know what mumblecore is, don't you? That's an imperfect term for a genre of imperfect low-budget films in which mostly young characters wander through unsatisfactory lives characterized by alienation, boredom and angst. They usually don't have enough energy to be angry-- and besides, who would care? They do, however, have dialog that's nicely sardonic, as when Harmony observes "I have a pretty strict policy about high fives" and "I grew up with limited access to mental health."
Harmony is played by Justin Rice as a low-energy version of Michael Cera. He looks as if he wishes he had the strength to seem as tragic as he thinks he probably is. He's been dumped by the pretty Jessica (Kristen Tucker), who confides to a friend she was able to shorten the grieving period after the breakup of their romance by starting early to grieve, at its halfway point. How can you grieve the end of something that hasn't ended? Preventative grieving, maybe it's called. Maybe grieving ahead for a rainy day.
In his low-key, absent way, Harmony has an action-packed life. He gets fired from his vague software job after unwisely calling his boss's father a pedophile during the graveside service. He has a medical emergency during which nurses place bandages on his head for practice. He attends his brother's wedding. He's lectured on marriage by a buddy whose wife's face confirms our suspicion that he's the husband from hell.
Mostly, Harmony mopes. Remember that old Irish crime, "Mopery with intent to gawk?" Harmony mopes and gawks. His life has been destroyed by Jessica, he moans. She is perfect. How could she treat him this way? His pal consoles him: He's only about an 8. For a 10, you have to go to Lebanon, South America, places like that.
"Harmony and Me" has its Chicago premiere starting Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center. If I've made Harmony himself sound boring, don't assume the movie is. Bob Byington directs with an exact sense of what he wants; consider the perfect timing of his use of Harmony's mom (Margie Beegle). How she says "don't ask me" and "leave me out of it" is unreasonably funny.
The movie plays at 8 p.m. Friday (10/30), 3:15 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3:15 o.m Sunday, 6:15 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, and 8:15 p.m Thursday. Byington will be present.
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...
A review of Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies" from its NYFF premiere last night.
Our monthly series digs into the career of Wes Craven and comes out with his 3D 2010 film, "My Soul to Take".