Maiden Heroine Tracy Edwards Changed the World to Suit Herself, and Everyone Else, in Boundary Crossing Voyage—and Life

She was always going to do exactly what she wanted. At 15, British youth Tracy Edwards unceremoniously left an unhappy Wales home to start a new life in the Greek port of Piraeus, quickly finding work as a stewardess on a yacht cruising the…
Read MoreMidsommar, Ari Aster’s magnum opus follow-up to his deeply unsettling Hereditary, is a sophomore picture of command and precision, well-directed and frequently diverting in its tale of unsuspecting American collegiates venturing into a once-a-century celebration of pagan depravity. Yet as movie freak outs go,…
Read MoreAmerican Nightmare: In Genre-Bending Culture Shock, Filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero Dreams of a Better Life Amidst Immigration Crisis

You’ve got to hand it to Mexican-Canadian filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero. What the emerging talent has accomplished in her new Blumhouse picture Culture Shock, premiering July 4 on Hulu’s Into the Dark, took considerable brass, not to mention a keen understanding of genre as…
Read MoreThe Last Black Man in San Francisco, an elegy for the idea of home and a lament for a vanishing culture in San Francisco, took this year’s Sundance directing prize for first-time filmmaker Joe Talbot and is a richly profound film and very nearly…
Read MoreYou wouldn’t know it from the ad campaign, but Blumhouse’s new thriller MA, starring an unlikely Octavia Spencer as an sociopathic, small-town stalker, is a (slightly) more nuanced film than it needed to be, largely due to its star’s determination to layer its shlock…
Read MoreThere’s a scene late in Rocketman where superstar Elton John (Taron Egerton) phones his estranged mother before a sold-out, about to be televised London show, which, tellingly, she’s preparing to watch from her living room. He’s calling to make a confession of sorts, or…
Read MoreBooksmart, Olivia Wilde’s raucous new comedy, is one of the funniest movies in ages, a high school buddy picture for right now, a showcase for two terrific young actresses and a laugh machine that takes off like a shot and hurtles ahead, three jokes…
Read MoreIt is, to put it charitably, a formula. There’s this Small-Town Kid from a working-class background who, despite a lack of know-how or means has Very Big Dreams, and while no one Believes In Her, just maybe, with the help of a Unlikely Mentor,…
Read More“I have all these feelings wrapped up inside of me. I just don’t have anyone I can trust my feelings with.” The mysteries of female adolescence are explored with concentrated poignancy in the short How Does It Start, as a curious twelve-year-old girl comes…
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