Set in London 2009 — for somewhat arbitrary reasons — The Good Liar opens with two lonely souls seeking companionship via a dating website: Distinctive Dating. Both are elderly, and both check various boxes and add personal information while the opening titles … Continue reading THE GOOD LIAR
The Irishman begins in darkness. A small box of light at the center of the frame opens like an iris, and we see nurses and doctors. It looks like a hospital, but this is no beginning; this is the end: A … Continue reading THE IRISHMAN
One of the true pleasures of a film festival is the ability to walk into a movie, know nothing about the film or the filmmakers, and walk out floored. Sometimes it leads to discovery, other times it leads to familiarity. … Continue reading BIRDS OF PASSAGE
Set in London, Sorry We Missed You follows a working-class family, the Turners, as they try to keep their head above water financially and emotionally in the freelance and gig economy. Sorry We Missed You is a harrowing look at what it takes … Continue reading SORRY WE MISSED YOU
Set among the streets, parks, and apartments of Harlem, 17-year-old Ayanna (Zora Howard, who co-wrote the movie with director Rashaad Ernest Green) has hopes and dreams. But they all hit a sizeable bump in the road when she meets and … Continue reading PREMATURE
Directed by Matthew Rankin, The Twentieth Century is one-half quirky bio-pic about the rise of Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Dan Beirne), and one-half spoof of King and the notion that a bio-pic can be a truth delivery device. Shot … Continue reading THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
It must have come as a surprise to filmgoers in the mid-90s that the next Martin Scorsese feature film would focus on the childhood of the 14th Dalai Lama. Then again, it probably came as a similar surprise in the … Continue reading KUNDUN
Painted between 1348 and 1350, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains is one of the few surviving works from painter Huang Gongwang and considered by many to be one of China’s finest works. It’s a painting of rivers and mountains, and the movie … Continue reading DWELLING IN THE FUCHUN MOUNTAINS (春江水暖)
Truth is a slippery thing. So are lies. There are bald-faced lies, little white lies, and evasions. But there are also constructs; stories and parables that aren’t necessarily true but point to an underlying and undeniable truth. Where the lies … Continue reading THE TRUTH (LA VÉRITÉ)
Michael J. Cinema 
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