A talk with director Sam Cullman on "Art and Craft".

Star Wars - The Force Awakens / Long and slow, in a multiplex led far, far astray.

In The Force Awakens a black man is tasered twice, drinks putrid water from a trough alongside an animal resembling a pig, and - in his own words - states that he used to work in sanitation. OK. Let's let those details slide. Call me politically correct. A Cambridge lefty. I can take it. By the way, that black man is the film's male lead. Does that make everything okay? By now everyone pretty much agrees that there are no major surprises, aesthetically or narratively, in The Force Awakens. OK, maybe the aerial dogfights have a few more twists and turns than last time, and what happens to Han Solo is, well, something of a surprise (though we all saw it coming). But everything from the film's color palette to its chase-scene structure (where's the map? C'mon people!) smacks of deja vu all over again. Of course, it's supposed to. You don't make a billion dollars on a $350 million investment (that's some cabbage right there, folks!) innovating . You ma...

The End of the Tour

Great poster! Beautiful concept. The image tells us everything we'd want to know about the film. Especially gutsy is the decision to exclude Jesse Eisenberg's and Jason Segel's faces. It's called a two-hander . In the theatre it connotes a play with only two actors. hink Driving Miss Daisy or most plays by Samuel Beckett. In The End of the Tour , Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg and director James Ponsoldt take the two hander into movie land, albeit with a supporting cast (including a hilarious comedic acting turn courtesy of Joan Cusack) and make it into a genuine, moving, funny, and heart-wrenching bit of cinema. The celebrity writer and his admirer. Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel. We may never know who David Foster Wallace really was. Already his estate is disowning this film - but the truth about that is also up for grabs. All we have is the film, exhibit A (if you will), and what we read about it, along with Mr. Wallace'...

Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes)

Wild Tales Black. Very black. Hilarious. Once in a while a movie comes along that expresses the dark side of our wish fulfillment fantasies. If revenge is a plate best eaten cold then this flic is positively glacial. Yet the revenge fantasies played out in this sextet of short stories are infernal, burning, fire breathing, enraging, and ultimately immensely funny and vastly entertaining. Who among you has not wanted to stick it to the tow truck people who unjustly took your wheels? What newlywed - upon learning their recently betrothed had schtupped the co-worker - hasn't wanted to go postal? What if the man who caused your dad to commit suicide walked into your diner, didn't recognize you, and ordered eggs? Director Szifron adroitly peels back the thin veneer of civilized behavior to remind us that underneath we are still animals. His opening title sequence (following a pure genius opening scene involving a group of strangers flying on a jet who have - er...a um...friend in...

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