'Volition': Film Review

The paeans come fast and furious in Martha Kehoe and Joan Tosoni's documentary about legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Lightfoot. "If there was a Mount Rushmore in Canada, Gordon would be on it," exclaims Tom Cochrane.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticSouth Korea came relatively late to the zombie-cinema sweepstakes, making up for lost time most notably with 2016’s “Train to Busan,” which has already generated a sequel.

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticWho would have thought a romantic comedy on the pain of being different could become such ironic and timely viewing in a global pandemic? In “I Weirdo,” a kooky and innovative debut by Taiwanese writer-director Liao Ming-yi, a couple with OCD trying to fit in to so-called “normal” society now looks like social-distancing heroes in our Covid-hit, locked-down lives. Shot and edited by Liao using the iPhone XS Max, the production looks no less vibrant for it.

If Michael Tubbs were a fictional character, the details of his life until 2016 — the year he became the mayor of Stockton, California, at age 26 — might be too by-the-book inspirational to feel believable. Born to a teenage mother and a criminal father who has spent most of his son's life behind bars, Tubbs excelled in school and won a full scholarship to Stanford, where a friendship with future Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel would play an outsized role in his political career.

Also Read: Showtime Scores Rights to Upcoming Documentary on The Go-Go'sAnyone familiar with the band in the ’80s might expect front woman and vocalist Carlisle to occupy the majority of the spotlight, but each enjoys equal time on screen to explain and explore what inspired, motivated and sometimes undermined their efforts.Caffey, for example, emerged early as lead songwriter, writing eight of 10 songs from their 1981 debut, while apparently nursing a heroin addiction she somewhat successfully

Jessica Kiang It’s 1975 and Alice Lamb, played by Penelope Wilton, is cussing at her typewriter and telling cute children to “bugger off.” When we cut back to the same typewriter some 30 years earlier, Alice, now played by Gemma Arterton, is again shouting at local kids and pointedly buying for herself the rationed chocolate bar another saucer-eyed moppet so desires.

Both Gemma Arterton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw enjoyed success on the London stage in the title role of playwright Jessica Swale's comedy about Restoration actress and royal mistress Nell Gwynn. Their collaboration continues in Swale's first step into features as writer-director.

When the protests over the killing of George Floyd ripped through the U.S. in late May, they quickly found resonance abroad — perhaps nowhere more than in France, where the 2016 death of 24-year-old Adama Traoré while in police custody (in an incident with similarities to the Floyd case) gave the French their very own reason to take to the streets.

Richard Kuipers “A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad’s an Alcoholic” casts a damning eye on the pernicious role alcohol plays in the working careers and social lives of Japanese men. Narrated by the innermost thoughts of a daughter during the 25 years she spends watching her father drink himself to death, Kenji Katagari’s second feature cleverly plays like a quirky little TV sitcom about an ordinary middle-class family before moving into darker territory.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThere’s a moment in Mary Wharton’s “Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President” that looks downright surreal — at least, in light of the bombs-away culture-war politics that have come to rule our own era. It’s Jan.

There's a fascinating juxtaposition in Shalini Kantayya's cautionary documentary Coded Bias. The engaging principal guide in this journey through our 21st century algorithmic hellscape is Joy Buolamwini, a young African American MIT Media Lab researcher who discovered that most facial recognition software is wildly inaccurate when it comes to darker-skinned faces and those of women.

Maggie Lee Chief Asia Film CriticImagine a Japanese version of “Pygmalion” in which the sculptor continues to caress slabs of marble even after Galatea has come to life. That is the unusual premise of “Romance Doll,” a marital drama in which a sex doll maker’s rapt obssession with his new prototype, leads to rejection of his human muse.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticA cigar is never just a cigar where Sigmund Freud is concerned.

Lisa Kennedy Four Vietnam vets reunite for a mission, one that will lean on their wartime exploits but also expose more than a few old tensions.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticSnarled loops of time travel have proved a surprisingly versatile and rewarding fantasy-cinema trope in recent years, from the big-budget likes of “Edge of Tomorrow” to such enterprising indies as “Predestination,” not to mention comedies (“Palm Springs”), horror (“Happy Death Day”), romance (“Before I Fall”) and more.

For a debut feature, writer-director Charlène Favier’s powerful coming-of-age sports drama Slalom couldn't come at a more timely moment.

truth and beauty, too, it’s safe to say that “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” finds a bit of both of those things.Also Read: 'Palm Springs' Film Review: Andy Samberg Puts an Indie Rom-Com Spin on 'Groundhog Day'The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, went to the Berlin and True/False Film Festivals and had a series of virtual screenings on July 8 to celebrate National Dive Bar Day, with a virtual rollout scheduled for July 10.

Guy Lodge Film CriticIn “Archive,” an isolated scientist methodically pursues an artificial-intelligence ideal, developing a sequence of human-android beings and recycling their various parts until the ultimate prototype is achieved.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticWhen you look at the face of Danny Trejo, you see the creases and hollows and pockmarks, the eye pouches like saddlebags, the badges of a life so well-worn that, at first, that’s just about all you see. Yet the more you look, the more you notice a paradox.

Dennis Harvey Film CriticBeing released during an epidemic lends additional if unintended frisson to “The Beach House,” a cryptic yet reasonably involving thriller in which vacationers find themselves under threat. The nature of that threat remains ambiguous, but in its partially-airborne inescapability, it definitely hits a note of creepy relevance.