Michael Phillips – Page 139

‘Eighth Grade’ review: Hello 12, hello 13, hello ‘likes’ in the age of techno-anxiety

December 12, 2018 at 6:05 p.m.

Tender, socially reticent, selectively assertive, Kayla is a middle-school student a few days away from graduation and the rest of her life. “Everything will work out,” she tells her scant...

‘Blindspotting’ review: Longtime friends reconnect, with risks, in gentrifying Oakland

December 12, 2018 at 10:12 p.m.

Of all the sharp scenes in “Blindspotting,” and there are plenty, one in particular gathers up every grudge, blind spot and frustration packed inside the moving company coworkers played by...

Daveed Diggs and Lin-Manuel Miranda perform a song from "Hamilton" at the 2016 Tony Awards.

Buzzworthy ‘Blindspotting’ completes the great Oakland film trifecta of 2018

July 12, 2018 at 8:37 a.m.

Something’s up with Oakland, and moviewise it’s working. This year three utterly different and bracingly effective films dealing with race, heroism, cowardice and ambition owe their personalities and much of...

Tessa Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield star in "Sorry to Bother You."

Boots Riley goes from ‘musician with a script’ to potential hitmaker with ‘Sorry to Bother You’

December 12, 2018 at 8:58 p.m.

For a long time, Chicago-born and Oakland, Ca.-based Boots Riley was “a musician with a script,” as he put it to me the other day, which meant he was a...

‘Sharp Objects’ review: a riveting Amy Adams solves a gone-girls murder mystery

July 8, 2018 at 10:15 a.m.

For a treacherously long while, director Jean-Marc Vallee’s eight-part HBO limited series “Sharp Objects,” based on Gillian Flynn’s debut novel, soaks up atmosphere and points all 10 fingers at a...

‘Sorry to Bother You’ review: Satirizing black identity and corporate ethics, ruthlessly

July 5, 2018 at 12:34 p.m.

“Sorry to Bother You” is about a telemarketer who becomes a superstar, for a price. It’s a science fiction allegory, though the science fiction angle emerges late in the game....

‘The First Purge’ review: The riskiest-ever federal entitlement program begins

December 12, 2018 at 8:37 p.m.

Warning: The following review contains references to the political content, rampant and pointed, in the “Purge” franchise begun in 2013. With these movies, there’s no way around what they’re really...

‘A Very English Scandal’: The interesting-ization of Hugh Grant reaches a bracing high point

December 13, 2018 at 7:18 a.m.

Now 57, Hugh Grant has been around long enough to be promising, then beloved, then tolerated, then derided, half-forgotten and finally resurrected for a career second act cemented, triumphantly, by...

‘Damsel’ review: A sardonic Western courtship that lasts a lifetime

December 13, 2018 at 7:17 a.m.

The opening shots of “Damsel,” thanks to cinematographer Adam Stone, are misleadingly evocative. We’re somewhere in Utah (the movie was made there, and along the Oregon coast). Against a forbiddingly...

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ review: Here’s one infestation we can get behind

December 12, 2018 at 9:56 p.m.

The unlimited breadsticks approach of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ensures that we remain full of carbs, all year, as each franchise rolls out another metaphorical Olive Garden. Some of the...

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