Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths reunites the legendary British auteur with actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who received an Oscar nod for his searing 1996 drama Secrets and Lies, in which she played the accomplished adult daughter of a downtrodden mother who gave her up at birth. That mother, indelibly…
Read MoreI’m Still Here: A Brazilian Family Under Political Persecution in Walter Salles’ Moving Drama
The opening sections of Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, the real-life story of a Brazilian family torn apart by political persecution circa 1971, depict a tight-knit community of parents, children and friends suspended in a fleeting idyll, one to be tragically frozen in photographs,…
Read MoreOne of Them Days, a raucous comedy powered by a pair of exuberant performances, is a female buddy picture that gets significant comic mileage from the pairing of stars Keke Palmer and musician SZA as L.A. besties and roommates on a slapstick odyssey to…
Read MoreIn The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson has what feels like a late-career renewal, even if the character she plays—a Las Vegas career showgirl in a fading spotlight—sees her own options begin to dim. You can feel Anderson, in this modest character study, really showing…
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