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☆ ‘Master Gardener’ Review: Paul Schrader’s Solitary Man
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Part of the kick of “Master Gardener” is that the writer-director Paul Schrader manages to pull off this improbable movie. As has been the case in many of Schrader’s stories, this one centers on a man who’s of this world and apart. That character — “God’s lonely man,” as he’s called in “Taxi Driver,” which Schrader wrote — has appeared repeatedly in his filmography. That lonely man is here again, risen once more in “Master Gardener,” but now named Narvel Roth and played like a clenched fist by Joel Edgerton. In all three movies, a solitary, soul-weary man in crisis — who’s invariably seen alone in a room writing in a journal he shares in voice-over — undergoes a kind of transfiguration.

“One thing is that this will be the first year in the history of the Cannes Film Festival when the publicists will have no rumors to tell to each other,” Ostlund said. In Ostlund’s films, which skewer class and social hypocrisies, any character who made a vow like that would wind up doing the opposite. But don’t expect the top prizewinner or any of the other awards to be his choices alone. Damián Szifron, from Argentina, is best known for his comic anthology feature “Wild Tales,” which showed in competition in 2014. And the Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani was here last year with “The Blue Caftan,” which showed in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

☆ ‘R.M.N.’ Review: A Bleak Diagnosis for Romania
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Deep into “R.M.N.,” an anatomy of the human condition, this powerhouse of a movie gets deeper, creepier and unnervingly familiar. At that point, dozens of residents in a Romanian village have gathered for an impromptu town hall. I’ve called the movie an anatomy, but this scene is more of an autopsy. “R.M.N.” is set in motion by Matthias (Marin Grigore), a hulking brute who stalks the movie like a threat. He moves back in with his wary wife and young son, and pursues and beds a former lover.

☆ ‘Other People’s Children’ Review: True Romance
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

When a woman falls in love in the sensitive French slice of life “Other People’s Children,” you may fall, too. She also has time for other pursuits, including guitar lessons, which is how she meets Ali (Roschdy Zem), a car designer. Things between Rachel and Ali progress rapidly in brief, viscerally lived-in scenes humming with cheerful energy. Just 4½, Leila is a charming pixie and, after some friction, she and Rachel take to each other. She gets stoned, goes to parties, works diligently; at school, she flirts with a colleague and supports a troubled student.

☆ ‘Renfield’ Review: Dracula, Worst Boss Ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Count Dracula has been dead for so long and gone through so many iterations — exotic, satanic, romantic — that it’s almost surprising there’s any juice left in the thirsty old boy. Yet here he is again, resurrected by a glorious, vamping Nicolas Cage, swinging a cape, baring his fangs and stealing his every scene. He’s basically toast, and our guy, the Count’s unhappy servant, Renfield (a Nicholas Hoult type, relatable, smooth, good-looking) — after years of groveling and scarfing bugs — has had it. After a century of pop-culture celebrity and box-office success there’s no need: He is what he is, a vampire. He’s also, unsurprisingly given the job’s grisly requirements, a terrible boss, which the movie uses to economically establish how the long-suffering Renfield joins the support group.

☆ ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Review: A Visit With Mommy Dearest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid” is a supersized, fitfully amusing, self-important tale of fear and loathing. As the title announces, its protagonist, Beau Wassermann — a terminal sad-sack played by the invariably watchable Joaquin Phoenix — is anxious, well, about everything. Outwardly, “Beau Is Afraid” seems to be a departure for Aster, whose first two features center on horrific happenings and some seriously bad relationships. In “Hereditary” and “Midsommar,” Aster meticulously peels back the ostensibly ordinary surface of the world, its patina of normalcy, to reveal the annihilating malevolence beneath it. In “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster changes things up by making Beau difficult to cozy up to.

☆ Netflix movie ‘Blonde’ roasted with eight Razzie nominations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Danielle Broadway | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Cast member Tom Hanks poses as he arrives at the London screening of 'Elvis' in London, Britain May 31, 2022. REUTERS/Maja SmiejkowskaLOS ANGELES, Jan 23 (Reuters) - “Blonde,” a biographical film that explores the exploitation of Marilyn Monroe, led this year's Razzie nominations with eight nods, including one for worst picture, while multiple Oscar winner Tom Hanks landed in the worst actor and worst supporting actor race. In their 43rd year, the Razzies deliver some tough love to movies, screenplays, directors and more with critical jabs meant to offer a humorous counterpoint to the Oscars. "Blonde" received a Razzie nomination for worst picture, two nominations for worst supporting actors, two for worst screen couples, as well as nods for worst remake, worst director and worst screenplay. Director Andrew Dominik and Netflix already have faced harsh judgment for what critics called a sexist and cruel depiction of Monroe, who was portrayed by Ana De Armas.

☆ And the 2023 Oscar Nominees Should Be …
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Manohla Dargis | A.O. Scott | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

And the 2023 Oscar Nominees Should Be …Academy voters will do what they want, but if our chief critics had their way, these are the films and performers that would be up for Oscars this year.

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