Amy Nicholson

Michael Moore conquers Europe in Where to Invade Next; Credit: Screenshot from trailer of Where to Invade Next

An Older, Wiser Michael Moore Invades Europe

“I've turned into this kind of crazy optimist,” Michael Moore admits in his new documentary Where to Invade Next, his first film in six years. At 61, the gadfly savant has mellowed. Instead of charging into rooms, he shuffles, the American flag wrapped around his shoulders like a grandmother's shawl. Conservatives......
The Birth of a Nation; Credit: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

The 10 Sundance Movies to Watch for in 2016

The biggest story at this year's Sundance Film Festival was the record-breaking bidding war for The Birth of a Nation, a prestige biopic about rebellious slave Nat Turner. When Fox Searchlight snatched it for $17.5 million — $5 million more than any other flick in the festival’s history — their......
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi; Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

13 Hours Trades Truth for Explosions — But It's Not Truly Political

Benghazi is a hashtag battle-cry, a call to arms that many Americans don't understand. Unlike the simplicity of “Remember the Alamo!” a bleat of “Benghazi!” still has people wondering, “Wait, what happened? And why are we mad?” Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi has an explanation, though......
It's almost as though this day isn't actually perfect.; Credit: Courtesy of IFC Films

Benicio Del Toro Shines in Dark War Comedy A Perfect Day

Benicio Del Toro has the basset-hound look of a beast you can trust — or, at least, he'll happily admit when he's lying. He's the right man for a rotten world, with heavy-lidded, handsome eyes made for giving any tough spot an appraising squint. Recently, he's played a string of......
David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh are more human than human in Anomalisa.; Credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa Pulls All Our Strings

Charlie Kaufman is a cartographer of the soul. You can picture him hunched over parchment accurately inking each dark river and, off to the side, cautioning that there be dragons. What makes Kaufman cinema's best psychoanalyst is a contradiction. He sees people for who we are — hurtful, hopeful, lovely,......
Credit: Lucasfilm

Relax, The Force Awakens Is the Third Good Star Wars Movie

George Lucas is the L. Ron Hubbard of Hollywood. Both men were sci-fi dreamers turned mega-millionaires who spun their pulp adventures into a religion. Tap the power within yourself, they urged. The faithful forked over their dollars. Then both Lucas and Hubbard mucked up their simple premise with add-ons like......
They do kinda look alike...; Credit: Photo by K.C. Bailey

Sisters Isn't Brilliant, but Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Make It a Bash

What's quietly revolutionary about Sisters is that it's a dumb-party movie like a million others. The hosts score booze, invite over dozens of friends and frenemies and then watch in horror — and a touch of self-congratulatory awe — as their house gets trashed. With the sunrise come lessons, hugs......