NYC Film Critic

I filed a brief reaction to Kelly Reichardt’s terrific Western Meek’s Cutoff when I first saw the film at the New York Film Festival last October.  Now that the movie is finally opening in theaters for the rest of you to see (as well you should) I’ve expanded on those thoughts in a review for Film Journal.  Keep checking the film’s official website to learn when its opening in your area and make plans to see it as soon as it arrives.

Silliness reigns in David Gordon Green’s foul-mouthed fantasy spoof Your Highness, co-written by and starring Danny McBride, one of the more unique comic personalities working today.  It’s an almost deliberately messy and imperfect movie, but I laughed quite a bit, perhaps because I have a soft spot in my heart for the vintage ’80s fantasies its riffing on.  Read my mild defense of this proudly dumb comedy over at Film Journal.

Blank City
Directed by Céline Danhier
***
New York City had it rough all over during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s but the hardest hit neighborhood—apart from virtually the entire Bronx, of course—had to be Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  Visitors to that part of town would have been treated to such unwelcoming sights as derelict buildings, rampant crime and drug abuse.  On the other hand, the sheer ugliness of the surroundings meant that rents were either dirt cheap or non-existent.  That made the area a prime location for the waves of young artists that were still moving into New York even as the rest of the city’s population seemed to be looking for a way out.

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