“Problemista” (2024)
Comic Julio Torres writes, directs and stars on this gleefully absurd, semi-surreal mix of outsider comedy and satire of the New York artwork world. The primary character Alejandro, like Torres, hails from El Salvador, involves America with goals of success as a toy producer (his emotionally-tinged innovations are among the many movie’s comedian highlights), however finds himself trapped within the bureaucratic maze of labor visas. immigration sponsorship and underneath the desk pay. His impromptu answer is a thankless job serving to an artwork critic (a gloriously deranged Tilda Swinton) piece collectively the works of her cryogenically frozen husband (RZA). Torres’ insightful script elicits laughs in methods massive and small, from elaborate fantasy sequences to the deeply irritating frustrations of the boss’s attachment to outdated software program. He punctuates his comedian sequences with visible aptitude—a top quality all too uncommon as of late—whereas slipping in surprisingly poignant moments of fact and knowledge.
“Positions of Stress” (2024)
The cussed insistence amongst most mainstream filmmakers that the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown merely did not occur is likely one of the most irritating components of latest cinema. Fortuitously, the writer-director-actor Theda Hamel is the exception to the rule, making his full-length debut with this loud, transgressive and sometimes boisterous return to summer season 2020. She gathers an odd ensemble of oddballs and henchmen round a Brooklyn brownstone within the depths of a jail — chief amongst them Terry (comic John Early), a neurotic screenwriter at worst desperately clinging to his Covid security protocols and Carla (Hamel) , a cynical therapeutic massage therapist – and bounces them off one another, creating what initially seems like a set of blacked-out sketches earlier than revealed as a fastidiously noticed portrait of that blurred, barely remembered time.
There have been so many motion pictures (so few of them good) bought on a picture of Liam Neeson holding a gun that one may very well be forgiven for not giving Into the Land of Saints and Sinners the good thing about the doubt. However this dramatic thriller from director Robert Lorenz is Neeson’s finest car in years, deftly mixing the present, action-packed strand of his profession together with his earlier, bulkier work. Neeson stars as Finbarr Murphy, a contract killer whose plans to hold up his gun are thwarted by some unsavory enterprise with a faction of the IRA. Neeson is great, discovering the character’s humble moments of melancholy, and Lorenz surrounds him with stellar Irish actors like Colm Meaney and Ciaran Hinds. However the exemplary flip right here comes from Kerry Condon (Oscar nominee for The Banshees of Inisherin), who’s extraordinarily ferocious as Neeson’s principal antagonist.
Between the Temples (2023)
The prickly, knotty humanism and ’70s temper of director Nathan Silver and his writing companion Okay. Mason Wells waved promisingly of their 2017 indie Thirst Street, reaches full bloom on this typically heat and generally uncomfortable comedy drama. Jason Schwartzman stars as a current widower unable to meet his duties as a cantor at a synagogue in upstate New York. However he’s unexpectedly re-energized by serving to his elementary faculty music instructor (Carol Kane) put together for her long-delayed bat mitzvah ceremony. Schwartzman is splendidly darkish, portraying the character’s ache and sorrow with out asking for sympathy, whereas Kane is a firecracker, peppering each scene with that electrifying unpredictability that has all the time made her a supporting MVP.
The most recent movie from proficient indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt does trick. Set in a neighborhood of artists within the Pacific Northwest, it quietly acknowledges the shortcomings and insular nature of such an endeavor with out mocking the individuals who inhabit it or the work they do. The stakes are low within the grand scheme of issues, however not for the individuals concerned, and particularly not for Lizzie (Michelle Williams), a hard-nosed sculptor making an attempt to finish a brand new batch of works amid intense exterior stress and irritation. Reichardt and Williams have collaborated for greater than a decade and a half, and Reichardt is splendidly attuned to Williams’ intricate interiors; she additionally surrounds her with an ideal ensemble, with Andre Benjamin, Hong Chow and Judd Hirsch making a particular impression.
Alice Darling (2023)
Viewers are impressed with Anna Kendrick’s current directorial debut “Woman of the Hour” you would possibly need to queue up this barely earlier car within the lead position; the types are totally different (it is a character-driven drama), but it surely equally offers with the day-to-day psychological labor of merely present as a girl. As the principle character, Kendrick skillfully conveys the sensation of a younger lady who it appears has all of it collectively— job, good associates, relationship—however is quietly withering underneath her domineering boyfriend (Charlie Carrick), from whom she hides an harmless weekend getaway together with her girlfriends (Kaniehtio Horne and Wunmi Mosaku) to keep away from .. . upset. Alanna Francis’ script astutely renders the fraught interactions of a poisonous relationship, whereas Mary Nighy’s assured path skillfully balances the advanced relationships of the nuanced characters on the heart of the story.
“De Palma” (2016)
When contemplating writer-director Noah Baumbach’s cinematic influences, the names Eric Rohmer or Woody Allen are more likely to come up. But this delightfully film-crazed documentary, which Baumbach directed with Jake Paltrow, vibrates with affection for the erotic journeys and dazzling shootouts of Brian De Palma, the fashionable auteur of “Dressed to Kill,” “Physique Double,” “Scarface” and extra others. Consisting solely of movie clips and chatty interviews with the partaking De Palma, it is a spirited and entertaining journey by means of the work of one of the crucial persistently thrilling administrators of our time.
