Movies

The new Peacock series “M.I.A” could be called “Miami Vice: The Reversal.” This nine-episode revenge saga is equal parts crime drama and nighttime soap about the clash between two families and the ruin that follows. However, it hinges on the duo of Etta Tiger Jonze (Shannon Gisela) and Lovely (Brittany Adebumola), and on the seemingly…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a story of limitless possibility, at least where adaptations are concerned. Beyond straight period-set retellings of the original, its story has inspired everything from a modern-day romance (“Bridget Jones’s Diary”) and a Bollywood musical (“Bride and Prejudice”) to a murder mystery (“Death…

In the director’s statement for her searing new documentary “Nuestra Tierra (Our Land),” acclaimed Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel writes, “This film works with our mother tongue and its racist complexities, which prevent many from accessing a vital space. The language of documents. The lives of people expelled by papers of dubious value, lives lost in…

It’s very rare that you catch a sighting of the c‑word in these august pages, but its usage is warranted in reference to one of the interviewees in Orban Wallace’s superb documentary Our Land, which examines the idea of the public’s right to roam on property owned by wealthy landowners. It’s a form of extreme invective that…

There’s something the matter with Dix Steele—the protagonist in Dorothy B. Hughes’ 1947 novel In a Lonely Place and in its 1950 adaptation of the same name directed by Nicholas Ray—and the women around him sense it.   You could call it feminine intuition. The detective in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” does so when Grace Kelly’s…

Milwaukee, like the rest of the contemporary American Midwest, is increasingly making a name for itself as a place that nurtures, showcases, and facilitates access to creative excellence. Most recently, it was announced that the city will be receiving the world-renowned Michelin Guide. Like Chicago, its stunning lakefront’s infrastructure centers cars over people, and its…

(Trigger warning: This film deals with suicide.) Emma Foley’s “Sound and Colour” presents an awkward and unnerving first fifteen minutes of a woman, Hannah (Alison Oliver), coming home to her family after spending days at a hospital following a failed suicide attempt. No one, including her, knows quite what to say, but everyone (including her…

Unfortunately, the more impressionable the girl, the more the world infringes on her malleable sense of self. ​“You look a lot better without all the black shit on your eyes.” Self-styled princess Claire (Molly Ringwald) asserts, dragging an eyeliner pencil across Ally’s (Allison Reynolds) lower lashes. ​“Hey, I like that black shit,” she retorts. The Breakfast Club embodies the…

No one does a dark and grisly murder like the Scandinavians. The steadily rising popularity of Nordic noir is testament enough to this fact, as viewers of all stripes continue to embrace the twisty, chilly sub-genre, known for its flawed protagonists, moody visuals, bleak subject matter, and slow-burn approach to storytelling. Usually quite a bit…

Romy keeps fantasising about Samuel, and it’s implied that BDSM now plays some role in her marriage. But, as in many erotic films, the threat posed by desire is eventually smoothed over and neutralised. Her life returns to normal, and what has happened with Samuel is folded neatly back into her relationship and job. Despite…