That Time of Year

A family gathers for Christmas, but disruption comes in the shape of a sister with a dark past who shows up with a new guy and a stepdaughter. A chaotic…

Ivan’s Childhood: Dreams of Mother

Nikolai Burlyayev. Photo: Mosfilm Sometimes you wonder whatever happened to a successful child actor. In far too many cases, their lives didn’t turn out so great, perhaps haunted by what…

All Quiet on the Western Front

In 1917, four German school boys enthusiastically join the army and are sent to northern France where hell awaits them; at the same time, Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl) is headed…

The Playlist

The story of how an innovative idea was turned into the streaming-service behemoth the world knows as Spotify, at a time when the music industry struggled with illegal downloading. The…

L’Eclisse

The third part in the trilogy that began with L’Avventura (1960) is equally marked by existential angst, as Vittoria (Monica Vitti, who’s been a constant in all three films) ends…

Coming Home: How to Have an Orgasm

Jon Voight and Jane Fonda. Photo: United Artists One of the most important moments in this critically lauded but perhaps slightly forgotten film is a sex scene. Jane Fonda, who…

Downton Abbey: A New Era

In 1928, Violet (Maggie Smith) surprises everyone by revealing that she has a villa in the south of France; at the same time, a film production company asks the family…

The Offer

In the late 1960s, Albert Ruddy (Miles Teller) manages to talk the head of production (Matthew Goode) at Paramount into letting him produce a film adaptation of a novel that’s…

Dances With Wolves: Finding Your Tribe

Kevin Costner. Photo: Orion Pictures If Dances With Wolves had been released today, poisonous social media activism and cable news outlets would have made it part of the culture war,…

La Notte

The second film in a trilogy that began with L’Avventura (1960) starts out with a couple (Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau) visiting a dying friend at a hospital in Milan; over…