Billed as an action/romance, The Gorge is set to bow on Apple TV+. I’ve been hesitant about reviewing movies released exclusively on streaming services. My reluctance doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of such films, but a lingering prejudice about the superiority of theatrical releases has proven difficult to shake, at least for me.
Denerstein Unleashed
Rocky Mountain Movies & Denver Movie Review
FOR MOVIE LOVERS WHO AREN'T EASILY SWEPT AWAY
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Failures of ‘The Gorge’ go deep
Billed as an action/romance, The Gorge is set to bow on Apple TV+. I’ve been hesitant about reviewing movies released exclusively on streaming services. My reluctance doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of such films, but a lingering prejudice about the superiority of theatrical releases has proven difficult to shake, at least for me.
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
A new Captain America hits the screen
I'd like to talk about the ending of Captain America: Brave New World. It's borderline crazy, gratuitously overblown, willfully preposterous, and, perhaps, the most enjoyable thing about this latest edition to the MCU canon.
Friday, February 7, 2025
'Anora' earns Critics Choice best picture
No single movie dominated the 30th Critics Choice Awards. Wicked, Emilia Pérez, and The Substance led the pack with three awards each. Anora won best picture, but earned no other awards.
Thursday, February 6, 2025
A searing West Bank documentary
This is either the worst time or the best time for releasing the documentary No Other Land. It's the worst time if you're sympathetic to Israel's attempts to push Hamas out of Gaza, and the best, if you view Israel as an oppressive power dedicated to keeping Palestinians under control.
A kickless dud of an action comedy
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
A muddled debut and a school conflict
Lineage doesn't necessarily matter when it comes to filmmaking, but it's difficult to begin a review of Armand, a stylistically muddled Norwegian thriller from director Halfdan Ullmann Tondel, without mentioning Ullmann Tondel's grandparents, director Ingmar Bergman and actress Liv Ullmann.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
She battled a dictatorial regime
In 1970, Brazil was in the midst of a military dictatorship that would continue for another 15 years. Director Walter Salles (Central Station) revisits that time to tell a story in which the unprincipled and murderous exercise of power upends the life of a family.
Monday, January 27, 2025
Notes: David Lynch, the Oscars
I met Lynch once but can’t remember much about him, other than that he smoked at a time when cigarettes were no longer easily tolerated. He also said it was OK for people -- or maybe he meant just me -- not to understand everything about his movies. He wasn't being snide or condescending; he seemed to be saying that he knew that it might not be possible to connect every dot in a Lynchian puzzle. Maybe he wanted that way.
Lynch began as an art student; I’ve generally regarded his movies as the work of a painter who became fascinated with moving pictures. An artist with a taste for ambiguity and mystery, Lynch had a gift for creating images that suggested more than they ever spelled out.
When I think of Lynch, I also remember the Lady in the Radiator singing the song In Heaven in Eraserhead. “In heaven, everything is fine,'' the lyric went. The song was both sincere, and unsettling. In Heaven teased us with hope and delusion, teetering on the edge of irony without falling into its smothering abyss.
We’ll probably have to wait a long time before another Lynch appears. Idiosyncratic talent is rare in all fields. Lynch received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2017, but he remained an independent voice in movies.
All of which brings me to this year's Oscar nominations which were announced on Thursday, Jan. 23.
Overall, the nominations didn’t offer much to complain about.
I would have liked to have seen Marianne Jean-Baptiste nominated for best actress. Her performance as the massively embittered Pansy in Hard Truths was more than notable.
I would have nominated Sebastian Stan, a best actor nominee, for his work in A Different Man, not for his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Apprentice.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor received no nomination, but her performance in Nickel Boys, though small, gave the movie its aching heart.
In case you've been wondering, India’s All We Imagine as Light wasn't eligible for a foreign-language Oscar nod because it wasn't submitted by for consideration by any of its co-producing nations or by India, where the film is set.
I shed no tears that Angelina Jolie was bypassed for her portrayal of Maria Callas in Maria or that Nicole Kidman was overlooked for playing a CEO who wanted to be sexually dominated in Babygirl. Both actresses should continue to thrive.
One last thought: I'm Still Here received what has been called a surprise nomination in the Best Picture category. Moreover, Fernanda Torres, as a mother trying to protect her family during the Brazilian military dictatorship of the 1970s, won a nomination for best actress.
Some analysts argue that this year's nominations have a decidedly liberal tilt, possibly in reaction to a Trump resurgence and European authoritarianism. Maybe, but I'm Still Here would have been a worthy choice no matter what ways the political winds are blowing. It's a fine movie, and, by the way, it's also nominated in the best foreign-language film category.
Enough. The Academy Awards … to use a mildly hollow but appropriate expression — are what they are.
It's possible that Lynch, to begin where I started, will be remembered long after many of this year's Academy Award nominees are forgotten.
So, remember, if your favorites aren't honored or if, you're among those who don't understand the furor over Amelia Perez, or if you think The Brutalist was too long, even with a 15-minute intermission, or if you couldn't quite adjust to the subjective camerawork of Nickel Boys, or you if you haven't seen The Apprentice, or if you puzzle about Wicked being the first film to receive 10 nominations but none for directing or writing (I read it somewhere), or if you think Edward Berger, who directed best picture nominee Conclave, should have received a best-director nomination, console yourself, and remember these words from Eraserhead.
“In heaven, everything is fine." Didn't David Lynch say so?
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Covering a tragic Olympics
On September 5, 1972, the Palestinian group Black September began its attack on Munich's Olympic Village. By the time the siege ended, 11 Israeli athletes had been murdered; five terrorists were killed, and one German police officer died.