Ryan Gosling has built a career on playing men caught between intellect and emotion, but in Project Hail Mary he delivers one of his most engaging performances yet. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (ever the inventive duo), and adapted from the beloved novel by Andy Weir, the film turns a deeply scientific premise into…
On the surface, this deeply confrontational play deals with several heavy themes, including (but not limited to) trauma, discrimination and the destructive aftermath of both. But it’s equally concerned with an even more ambitious matter: the nature of truth. The action begins with several figures in hazmat suits sweeping a crime scene as Laurenz Laufenberg's…
This is not the story of Josephine Baker that you know. As the title suggests, it is “for”, rather than “about” the famed singer, dancer and actress. Baker’s story defies neat narratives, and while this performance touches on many elements of her life, from her onstage persona to her Rainbow Tribe of adopted children and…
Few environments capture the fragile hierarchies of adolescence quite like summer camp. Friendships form quickly, loyalties shift overnight, and the unspoken rules of belonging can be as ruthless as they are invisible. The Plague taps directly into that volatile world, following a 12-year-old boy who becomes entangled in a cruel camp tradition targeting an outcast…
Cruelty has always been a rite of passage in coming-of-age stories, but few films capture the quiet terror of adolescent social hierarchies as vividly as The Plague. Set at a water polo summer camp in the summer of 2003, writer-director Charlie Polinger’s striking debut transforms the awkward, anxiety-ridden world of early teenage boyhood into something…
For producer Jenna MacMillan, stepping behind the camera for the first time wasn’t about abandoning what she already knew, it was about trusting herself to lead the story. With The Snake, her offbeat directorial debut premiering in competition at this year’s SXSW Film & TV Festival, MacMillan brings writer-star Susan Kent’s sharp, darkly funny script…
A murder mystery usually begins with a body. In Kill Me, it begins with a question: what if the detective and the victim were the same person? Blending a darkly comic whodunit with an unexpectedly candid exploration of depression, the film follows Jimmy (Charlie Day), who begins investigating his own attempted murder, unsure whether he’s…
Every May, Liverpool — one of the UK’s most historic music cities — becomes a launchpad for the next generation of artists as Liverpool Sound City returns with another stacked lineup of rising talent. Now firmly established as one of the UK’s most important new-music festivals, Sound City transforms venues across Liverpool into a buzzing…
