Review by Ryan Lattanzio

Director Wayne Wang’s “Coming Home Again” opens a window onto dying days in all their ugliness, but also onto their possibility of redemption for a mother and son. Formally impeccable and observant, the “Joy Luck Club” filmmaker’s latest wastes none of its 85 minutes in unpeeling the relationship between Chang-rae (Justin Chon) and his ailing mom (Jackie Chung). At the heart of this Ozu-esque drama is Chung, who supplies a heartbreaking performance as a woman trying…

Review by Eric Kohn

In his 2006 mockumentary, Borat went to America and provoked rampant anti-Semitism across the land. It was hard to imagine how a sequel could go much further. But then Trump happened, white nationalism scored a national platform, internet conspiracy theories went mainstream, and the pandemic only further exacerbated the festering, stupid rage of a society on the brink. The time was ripe for more Borat, and Baron Cohen has met his moment, with a wily, dangerous…

Review by Kate Erbland

In the spring 2017, one-time “All My Children” star Catherine Eaton’s directorial debut, “The Sounding,” made its premiere at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, where it picked up the Audience Award in the “New American Visions” section. Since then, Eaton — who also stars in the film, which she wrote with Bryan Delaney — has taken the film around the world, picking up jury awards, audience awards, and even a best cinematography win for…

Review by Kaleem Aftab

If 2020 had worked out differently, Pixar’s “Soul” would have started its run back at Cannes — the first Pixar effort since “Inside Out” to do so — ahead of a much-anticipated theatrical release. Like a lot of promising cinema on the docket for earlier in the year, those plans fizzled, but the “Soul” train keeps chugging along. The winding path is appropriate for a movie steeped in observations about life’s unpredictable turns. While Disney’s decision…

Review by Jude Dry

If you were to assume that a movie starring Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Christopher Walken, Cheech Marin, and Jane Seymour sounded like the next Quentin Tarantino epic, you would not be entirely remiss. But you would be sorely disappointed to discover, upon purchasing entry to “The War with Grandpa,” that the killer cast is sorely wasted on an utterly inane script about a spoiled kid who inexplicably decides he hates his very nice grandpa for…

Review by Kate Erbland

It’s remarkable what packaging can do for a film. In 2018, filmmaker Veena Sud’s second feature film bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival in the starry Galas section — other Galas that year included “First Man,” “A Star Is Born,” and “Widows” — where its heavy subject matter and high-profile placement seemed to earmark the drama as a contender to watch. First filmed under the title “Between the Earth and Sky” and based on a…