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Alpha

2/28/2019

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B

Directed by Albert Hughes

Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee

Review by Jon Kissel

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If the Great Man theory of history had to be applied to the symbiotic relationship between humans and dogs, some nameless, intrepid human had to be the first one to extend their hand to some nameless, curious, probably low-testosterone wolf.  Such a pivotal, nonexistent moment gets adapted into Albert Hughes’ Alpha, a deft and effective picture of survival left to languish in the dregs of summer.  Hughes brings a mythic sweep to a film that many directors hackier than him would have contentedly left as a marginally grittier Incredible Journey or an equally corny 10,000 BC.  From its opening sequence to its rousing ending, Alpha emerges as one of 2018’s biggest surprises.

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Searching

2/27/2019

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B-

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty

Starring John Cho and Debra Messing

Review by Jon Kissel
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For the latest in micro-budget workarounds, the world turns to Searching, a kidnap thriller with the gimmick that all of its events take place through a webcam or on a screen.  For his debut feature, director Aneesh Chaganty gives himself a high degree of difficulty, ensuring that his film will not exactly be the most cinematic to grace theater screens.  However, thanks to the frayed-nerve desperation of star John Cho and a propulsive script, Searching transcends its technologically-imposed limitations to tell a classic story of a father and daughter drifting apart long before the dramatic events of the film.  The germ of Chaganty’s film would work in a pre-smartphone era, though the gimmick would have to be reconsidered.

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To the Wonder

2/22/2019

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C

Directed by Terrence Malick

Starring Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko

Review by Jon Kissel

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Terrence Malick’s mythic, ethereal films always find the intimate and the internal amongst the swirl of larger events, but in To the Wonder, there is no larger event beyond an unconvincing romance.  Malick’s style lives on the razor’s edge between profundity and parody, and it’s often the grander stakes of colonial Virginia or the Pacific WWII theater that keeps his characters and their breathy inner monologues from becoming tiresome.  Without those stakes or any epic sweep to speak of, To the Wonder’s in trouble. 

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Support the Girls

2/20/2019

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B+

Directed by Andrew Bujalski

Starring Regina Hall

Review by Jon Kissel
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​The ‘useless men’ subgenre, best exemplified recently by Elle or Widows, gets more company with Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls, a film whose punny title is perfect for its setting.  Set in a ‘breastaurant’ that’s even more grimy and pathetic than the average Hooters, Support the Girls works as a line that the patrons of the central establishment would chuckle at and as a mantra for its harried but dedicated manager, beset on all sides by the tyrannies of the aforementioned useless men she comes into contact with.  Bujalski, best known as an early adopter of mumblecore indie cinema, instills far more life into his latest film than one would expect from a mumblecore devotee, and while that genre has its moments, the success of Support the Girls suggests that he might be better off making films about energetic women instead of introspective men.

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Best TV of 2018

2/5/2019

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As the television landscape gets more segmented and diffuse, how can any one person manage to keep up?  The answer is that they can't, as even the dwindling number of professional critics lament not being able to spend time on a series that's slow to get going.  It's not that great shows don't exist, but it's both hard to find them or to go out on a limb with something new when all of King of the Hill just got added to Hulu, for example.  Nevertheless, the best television of 2018 represents the increased diversity and cinematic daring that so many avenues for storytelling provides.  Certain shows are always going to get overlooked (I continue to fall behind on Better Call Saul and anything on Showtime or Starz is a black hole, to say nothing of oddball streaming shows like Maniac or Homecoming), but these twenty series keep the Golden Age of Television moving into the future.

More Best of 2018 at:
Best Film Scenes
Best Performances
Best Films


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