"I love when movies are dangerous. Are they anymore? I don’t think so." We consume noise. We’ve lost the signal. The transmission is overwhelmed by “content,” not art. That’s the point. To wear you down. To accept mediocrity. The celebration of film and music has been...
In Knives Out, Last Jedi director Rian Johnson takes a stab at a traditional country-house murder mystery, with excellent results. Don’t be surprised to find out that one of the most politically prescient films of the year comes from a director whose last film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, sparked a backlash among hordes of rabid fans for making the...
Less a biopic than an intriguing tale about a life-changing encounter between a famous television host and an embittered journalist, A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood nonetheless captures the enduring positive spirit that made Mr. Rogers so beloved. Mr. Rogers has a quiet serenity about him that, to the most cynical among us, could come across...
Emlyn Crenshaw, a veteran of the Richmond theatre scene, never thought she could have a job in television production. A year after arriving in LA, though, she's landed behind the scenes at Netflix's Raising Dion. Plenty of unemployed college graduates pack up and head for sunny California. Richmond native Emlyn Crenshaw, 26, moved to Los Angeles...
This affecting portrait of a marriage coming to an end gets beyond marriage and divorce to tell a story about all the struggles and vulnerabilities that make us human. At first glance, Charlie and Nicole Barber could be considered the ideal couple. They’re unbelievably well-matched in creativity, spirit, passion for their jobs, their son Henry,...
Virginia film Mount Skylight, originally a short, is expanding to feature length with help from Winchester's Magic Lantern Theater. The chilling film tells a story of four hikers who encounter a seemingly empty town in the Shenandoahs. Fans of the suspenseful, Virginia-based short film Mount Skylight are in for some positive news: the short is...
Jojo Rabbit is an "anti-hate satire" featuring a bumbling Nazi pre-teen and a comical imaginary Adolf Hitler. But is there an effective message underneath these startling satirical elements? Taika Waititi’s most beloved films combine an unencumbered sense of fun with a deep compassion for their characters. The New Zealand director’s rise to...
Netflix's Dolemite Is My Name depicts the rise of sexually explicit comedian Rudy Ray Moore, from underground phenomenon to blaxploitation legend. There is a scene in Dolemite Is My Name, the new Netflix film about the rise of Rudy Ray Moore and his famous persona, when Dolemite and his new friend, Lady Reed, perform a near-nonsensical song about...
Bong Joon-ho's latest film, Parasite, is an awe-inspiring morality tale that's perfect for 2019. From the opening frames of Bong Joon-ho’s newest film, Parasite, it’s made clear that this is a world centered around necessity, and the way it feeds into the societal roles we play. The focus is on two families, the most important being the Kims, in...
Delving into the alienation of modern life, groundbreaking Iranian film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is so much more than just another vampire picture. It comes to The Byrd next week. A melancholy romance draped in the atmosphere of 1950s noirs and 1960s spaghetti westerns, Ana Lili Amirpour’s 2014 directorial debut announced her as a...
