Film Comment – July 01, 2019

12 | FILMCOMMENT|July-August 2019

Booksmart Olivia Wilde
“Wilde’s teen comedy feels zeitgeisty in all the wrong
ways: hip to all the social-justice vocab, but scrubbed
clean of conflict, candor, and even wit.”—DG

The Dead Don’t Die Jim Jarmusch
“Beyond his blunt homage to Romero’s alienated zom-
bies, Jarmusch feels at home when celebrating rebel-
liousness as an antidote to today’s madness.”—MYM

The Farewell Lulu Wang
“Sensitively captures the wallop of diasporic grief—
of mourning across oceans and cultures. Emotionally
expansive in its minor-key specificity.”—DG

Give Me Liberty Kirill Mikhanovsky
“Relentless and altogether exhausting—but also a joy-
ous, tender blast. It is very Russian in its manic humor,
and very American in its mixing of cultures.”—JR

Late Night Nisha Ganatra
“Mindy Kaling delivers a genially purposeful work-
place comedy that mixes in its satiric barbs with reas-
suringly familiar beats.”—NR

The Mountain Rick Alverson
“A dreamlike, wintry '50s-set oddity that strives to
meld together ice skating, lobotomy, and a digressive
depth charge of a performance by Denis Lavant.”—JR

The Nightingale Jennifer Kent
“Kent pushes her film into unexpected, uncomfortable,
and often audacious places. She’s aided by her lead
actors’ layered and revelatory performances.”—DG

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino
“At his most fetishistic and nostalgic, Tarantino builds
a freeze-frame replica of late-'60s Hollywood that only
abandons stasis to gorily tackle its monsters.”—MYM

Ray & Liz Richard Billingham
“British photographer Billingham re-creates his youth,
and his parents’ alcohol haze, in a fictionalized memoir
that’s by turns bleak, tender, and grimly comic.”—JR

Rolling Thunder Revue Martin Scorsese
“Not gonna lie that I worried about a boomer vic-
tory lap, even in the hands of Scorsese and Bob
Dylan, but it’s magic, the concerts galvanizing.”—NR

CRITICS’ CHOICE Five critics rate and reflect upon 10 films of the moment

Manohla

Dargis

   

    

  

  

   

   

   

   

  

  

Participants:Manohla Dargis of The New York Times; Devika Girish, freelance; Manu Yáñez Murillo of Otros Cines Europa; Nicolas Rapold of
Film Comment; Jonathan Romney of FilmComment

Devika

Girish

Manu Yáñez

Murillo

Nicolas

Rapold

Jonathan

Romney

= Excellent = Very good = Good = Of interest = Mediocre = Bomb