Movies

‘The Lighthouse’ will make you question your sanity

Because of their strong performances, the personality clashes between Pattinson and Dafoe provide the film with some of its best scenes. Read More

‘Cats’ convinced me of the power of friendship

But even if it’s not good in the traditional sense, the “Cats” movie  cannot be viewed in a traditional context. It must be viewed as an exercise in free-spirited, unabashed strangeness. Read More

40 years later, ‘The Shining’ remains a paradigm of horror

The amalgamation of sound effects, long shots, masterclass framing, disturbing imagery, and the slow build of suspense creates a perfect horror movie. Read More

The pan-religious appeal of Emmet Otter

May I suggest the Jim Henson-directed “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas” for your not-quite-Christmassy-but-it’s-got-the-giving-spirit, made-for-television viewing pleasure?  Read More

‘Parasite’ is a master class in empathetic satire

Here’s what I can say that won’t spoil it for you. The film is about a rich family and a poor family, and how their lives intersect. Read More

Arts and Leisure: Performance

Here we are again — back to Rochester after three shimmering months of summer. Some of us are arriving for the first time, while others return for their final year. Either way, our recent days of hot summertime fun are gone. Soon, the nights will get colder and, before we know it, winter will close […]

CT Recommends: “Rango”

In 2011, Pixar was in the middle of a golden age, and with Dreamworks contenders like “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Kung Fu Panda,” even if you hadn’t fully tapped into the uncritical joy that comes from being a young  moviegoer, you were mostly guaranteed fun with any new big names in animation. But, […]

“Endgame” matters, whether you like it or not (I did)

“Avengers: Endgame” succeeds as a “Marvel movie” more than as a “movie” in the general sense. I don’t mean to say by this that I thought it was poorly made. But that’s not why I saw “Endgame,” and if you’ve already watched it yourself, that’s not why you saw “Endgame,” either. 21 films into the […]

Agnès Varda continues to live in cinema

Few people have ever embodied an art movement more than Agnès Varda did the French New Wave. Her first film, “La Pointe Courte” (1954), is considered by many to be the birth of the genre and her last, “Faces Places” (2017), came half a century after its heyday, but Varda’s entire career represented its naturalistic, […]

UR student Maddy Wary stars alongside Ben Affleck in Netflix film

Maddy Wary seems like your average college student, aside from having her own IMDb page and having acted alongside Ben Affleck. A first-year at UR, Wary recently starred in Netflix film “Triple Frontier” withAffleck, Pedro Pascal, and Oscar Isaac. The movie was directed by the Oscar-nominated J.C. Chandor and was filmed mainly in Hawaii, where […]