Michael Frank

The list of great, working directors constantly shifts, with different names and faces growing due to critical and commercial success. In 2019 and into 2020, great filmmakers drew big audiences and scores of fans, like with Bong Joon-ho and his dramatic Best Picture win for “Parasite” and Céline Sciamma finding new devotees with her French lesbian love story “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie united every New York City and basketball fan with their passion project “Unc...

This recap of The New Pope Season 1, Episode 7 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
For 12 months, the world within The New Pope has been waiting. Nuns have been waiting. Cardinals have been waiting. Believers have been waiting. Most importantly, though, audiences have patiently been waiting.
The first six episodes of The New Pope focused on Sir John Brannox (John Malkovich) and the politics within the Vatican and its inhabitants. ...

This recap of The Outsider Season 1, Episode 8, “Foxhead”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
After a weak episode last week, The Outsider Episode 8 gets back into the action. Focusing around the next man likely to be targeted by the Grief Eater, Claude Bolton (Paddy Considine), “Foxhead” follows the larger group as they head to Cecil, TN in pursuit of Bolton.
The ex-strip club manager traveled to Cecil to visit his brother, as h...

Screening at the Cannes Film Festival last year and the Sundance Film Festival earlier in 2020, writer/director Levan Akin’s "And Then We Danced" hit the festival circuit with critical acclaim. A Swedish-Georgian film focused on the latter country, the drama sparked protests in the streets of Georgia while being hailed as a win for love and a distancing from bigotry.

Following Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani), a young dancer on the National Georgian Ensemble, the film explores the conversative and t...

★★

There are certain movies that floor you. You can’t imagine getting up out of your seat as the final scene fades or cuts to black. The experiences feel ethereal, too good for this world. Downhill is not one of those movies.

The comedy from writer/directing duo Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, and starring a killer pair in Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, starts with a strong premise, likely because it’s adapted from an already successful foreign film, the Swedish Force Majeure. The Swedish film...

This recap of The New Pope Season 1, Episode 6 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
In a change from the previous two episodes, The New Pope Episode 6 opens up on Sofia Dubois (Cécile de France) as she’s eating lunch. A priest with an eyepatch walks up to her, dressed in all black and speaking in an American Southern accent, far from the usual voice heard in Paolo Sorrentino’s Italy-based fantastical drama. He explains that he’s “t...

This recap of The Outsider Season 1, Episode 7, “In the Pines, In the Pines”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
HBO’s The Outsider had no problem getting right into the weeds of its story. It started with a bang, quite literally, and has been a mad chase to catch up to its beginning events. In recent weeks, though especially in The Outsider Episode 7, the show has decided to slow down the plot and development, leaving you wantin...

★★★★
I’ve seen countless movies revolving around the concept and execution of love. Far from a foreign concept in film, most of these love stories get recycled over and over again, with different variations cropping up nearly every weekend with new releases. Streaming services come out with these romantic movies and series constantly. All of this makes the love story in Portrait of a Lady on Fire that much more striking and important.
Something incredible happens about midway through Céline S...

It’s always interesting to see which original horror films get sequels. Critical acclaim often fades into the background, as commercial success pushes production companies forward in making these new films. Films that get panned by critics end up having two, three, or four sequels, while individual critical darlings are one-and-done. In this case, “The Boy,” which came out in 2016 and panned universally by critics, looks to be given a second chance in the form of “Brahms: The Boy II.”
Reuniti...

This recap of The New Pope Season 1, Episode 5 contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
The New Pope continued its run of odd guest appearances as episode five started with a conversation between Pope John Paul III (John Malkovich) and model and actress Sharon Stone. They talk about the need for an upgrade to the Bible, Stone’s IQ of 154, and the pope’s love for gin and tonics. The opening highlighted the same, slow pacing that has str...

This recap of The Outsider Season 1, Episode 6, “The One About the Yiddish Vampire”, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
HBO’s The Outsider has become committed to the mystery of its villain, its monster. The Outsider Episode 6, “The One About the Yiddish Vampire”, finally unveils that monster. Well, sort of. Though the monster hasn’t necessarily been hiding, creator Richard Price’s show has kept it largely under wraps, simply cal...

Shirley Jackson’s story is brought to sumptuous Gothic life thanks to Josephine Decker and a typically-great Elisabeth Moss performance.
If you caught Elisabeth Moss in Her Smell last year, you saw an unhinged performance, one bursting with rage, drug-induced confusion, and lots of screaming. Her role as a rockstar in flux should have garnered her more awards attention, but the film underperformed at the box office regardless of (mostly) critical acclaim. Director Josephine Decker’s new film ...

Florian Zeller directs a stunning feature debut starring Anthony Hopkins & Olivia Colman at the top of their game.
First-time director Florian Zeller walked out on stage to rapturous applause. At least one-third of the audience attending the premiere for Zeller’s film gave a standing ovation inside one of Sundance Film Festival’s biggest venues, the Eccles Theater. The reason for this reaction? The Father, a stage play written by Zeller adapted for the screen by Christopher Hampton, starring ...

Dominic Cooke’s well-crafted spy thriller doesn’t try anything new, but boasts winning performances & a zippy plot.
In 2019, the buddy-car film Ford v Ferrari became the clear cut favorite of dads across American and Britain. Using well-matched leads in Christian Bale and Matt Damon, James Mangold’s film became a critical and commercial hit, showing that fathers still have the power to put a movie into the green. It looks like there’s a new dad film of 2020 though, with Dominic Cooke’s Ironba...