Tim Jackson
Director Johnnie To has a playfulness found in much Hong Kong cinema. He has found a different way to unfold a story, making clear how money and greed can inform everything, but with plenty of room for humor and for good fortune.
Twenty-one years after she received a Golden Globe for “Europa Europa,” director Agnieszka Holland returns with another uncompromising vision of perseverance and the power of human connection in the worst of times.
What’s coming up now in this small gap between the Awards shows and the Film Festival Season? Lots! This month is a cornucopia of adventurous off-the-radar films. March features several great director’s series, Hong Kong, German, and Czech premieres, women directors, local directors, and a range of documentaries on music that you probably never heard of.
We’re in this virtual reality age now, asking new questions about what art is. What has true meaning and what doesn’t?
Five strong contenders: production values are high, the actors excellent, and four are beautifully grounded in their settings –- Norway, Calcutta, and two in Ireland.
I recommend keeping an eye out for this and other animation shows at local, independent theaters and museums. You will be dazzled and amazed.
You may be still catching up on the Academy Award, Golden Globe, People’s Choice, or SAG picks. But this month offers some rare and wonderful treats for film fans of all kinds.
In “Art,” playwright Yasmina Reza uses theater to explore how powerfully we defend our fears and rationalizations.
As in the plays of Harold Pinter, Reza realizes that violence seethes underneath our words; our language betrays our better nature.
“Red” is about creativity and destruction, Apollonian rigor and Dionysian instinct, fathers and sons, love and rejection, life and death.
Music Commentary: Brian Wilson’s Legacy Thrives — 2026 Reissues Reviewed