At the intersection of pulpy horror and a coven-like sense of inclusive community is Good For Her: Richmond’s preeminent destination for femme monsters, wretched women, and nasty displays of the (not so) divine feminine. Good For Her is, among a myriad...
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...
Celine Sciamma's powerful period piece, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, creates a sensitive and devastating portrayal of two women falling in love. “Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?” It's a question that has been asked countless times throughout the history of cinema, to the point where, frankly, it isn’t that...
Lulu Wang's directorial debut, The Farewell, explores the morality of lies and the complexities of family dynamics. Lulu Wang's The Farewell features a scene where Billi, played by Awkwafina, learns from her grandmother, or Nai Nai, how to dispel toxins from her body. The routine involves exhaling and then forcefully thrusting one's arms in front...
Featuring Jane Fonda at her early-70s best, this atmospheric mystery from Alan J. Pakula shines in its new Criterion Collection reissue. Successful producer-turned-director Alan J. Pakula hit a hot streak in the 1970s, beginning with his “Paranoia Trilogy” -- three films with a visceral sense of atmosphere and a Hitchcock-ian sense of voyeurism,...
