Tag: Family

Hamnet’s Powerful Performances Balance Out a Light Narrative (Middleburg Film Festival)

Director Chloe Zhao returns to the big screen with a tale of love and loss. Hamnet tells the tale of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his early life with his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley). After getting married and…

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Sentimental Value Lives By Its Actors Empathetic Performances (Middleburg Film Festival)

2021’s The Worst Person in the World was a critical darling upon its release and announced writer/director Joachim Trier and actress Renate Reinsve as two talents on the rise in the film world. Their followup film has finally…

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Left-Handed Girl: A Slice of Alice Character Study with a Twist (Middleburg Film Festival)

Fresh off of his stellar Oscar winning run last year for Anora, Sean Baker’s first foray back into theaters is as a co-writer and producer of a Taiwanese film by director/writer Shih-Ching Tsou. Left-Handed Girl tracks the lives…

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Daniel Day-Lewis’ Return Isn’t Enough to Elevate Anemone

After abruptly retiring eight years ago, the film world was abuzz when legendary three-time Academy Award winner Daniel Day-Lewis announced that he’d be returning to movie theaters to star in a film he co-wrote with his son Ronan…

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Presence Combines the Paranormal with Drama For An Interesting Concept

Famed director Steven Soderbergh has returned to cinemas with an interesting new horror concept. Presence introduces us to the Payne family as they move into a new home. The family’s matriarch Rebecca (Lucy Liu) views it as an…

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Magnetic Performances Make Unstoppable The Feel Good Film of 2024 (Middleburg Film Festival)

Based on a true story, Unstoppable introduces us to high school wrestler Anthony Robles (Jharrel Jerome) who lives with his mother Judy (Jennifer Lopez), stepfather Rick (Bobby Canavale), and his siblings. Anthony has dreams of wrestling on the…

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I’m Still Here and Quiet Strength

I’m Still Here tells the true story of Eunice Paiva (Fernanda Torres), the wife of a former Brazilian politician Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) who finds himself a target of the Brazilian military dictatorship of the 1970s. After Ruben…

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Nightbitch is an Entertaining, Revelatory Exploration of the Pressures of Motherhood (Middleburg Film Festival)

Following lots of hype surrounding Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel coming to the big screen and the potential of a performance from Amy Adams finally garnering her an Oscar, the trailer for Marielle Heller’s new film Nightbitch deflated a…

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The Piano Lesson Explores Generational Legacy and Trauma Amidst Quality Performances

It is a tad ironic that a movie about family is also a family affair behind the scenes. The Piano Lesson is directed by the son of Denzel Washington, Malcolm Washington in his feature length debut. Malcolm directs…

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A Real Pain Combines Heart and Humor to Explore Grief and Connection (Middleburg Film Festival)

Grief can be a complicated thing. The latest film from actor Jesse Eisenberg explores a family trying to overcome loss that is both permanent and figurative regarding their own relationship. A Real Pain begins in JFK airport in…

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