Movie Reviews
Get the latest movie reviews from our in-house critics, Shirrel Rhoades and Ian Brockway. You’ll also find reviews from film festivals and advance screening movies. Do you have what it takes to be a Guest movie reviewer? Send us your review to info@TropicCinema.com for approval and maybe you’ll earn a spot! Want to make sure you never miss a review? Follow the Tropic on Facebook for daily updates!
Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: Picture of His Life
Amos Nachoum is a world renowned underwater photographer and former soldier. In “Picture of His Life” by Yonatan Nir and Dani Menkin, Nachoum’s heroic struggle comes to the fore with a story befitting any classic hero.
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Front Row at the Movies: Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things
In this solid documentary directed by Leslie Woodhead, we follow Ella Fitzgerald’s life – and her music – in a chronological fashion: coming to the north with her mother in “the Great Migration” of blacks leaving the racism and poverty of the south; settling in Yonkers, New York; dancing on street corners in Harlem for a nickel. And a triumphant career that spanned the world.
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: For They Know Not What They Do
“For They Know Not What They Do” is a stirring and emotive documentary by Daniel Karslake that emphasizes the battle between Christian fundamentalism and LGBTQ rights, essentially the very right to exist and breathe freely. It is plainly presented, direct and very moving.
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: The Surrogate
Director Jeremy Hersh’s striking, emotive and perfect film “The Surrogate” underscores the pressures of parenting and the hopeful raising of children. It is as full of meaning, as it is anxious. Punchy, direct and beautifully unsentimental, it is both provocative and pensive.
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: A White, White Day
Hlynur Pálmason’s “A White, White Day” is billed as a thriller, but it is opaque and distant. Icy and removed with painterly atmospheric scenarios, this film is not how suspense stories are usually treated. It is a thriller through the lens of Albert Camus.
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Front Row at the Movies: Shirley
As Joyce Carol Oates once wrote, “Characterized by the caprice and fatalism of fairy tales, the fiction of Shirley Jackson exerts a mordant, hypnotic spell.” Josephine Decker's film tries hard to do that, too.
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: The Painter and the Thief
Benjamin Ree’s new documentary “The Painter and the Thief” analyzes an unlikely friendship. It is as startling as it is poignant with surprises at every turn. Without a doubt it is one of the best documentaries you are likely to see.
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: Shirley
Moss is wondrous as the legendary author even though we are not given much beyond surly Shirley. No matter. She still manages to give her role magic. Everything is in the eyes and in the sudden giggle of glee, both sacred and profane.
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: The Ghost of Peter Sellers
“The Ghost of Peter Sellers” is a thoughtful, touching film that will work on you gradually. It is in fine company with the other “making of” film docs like “Hearts of Darkness” and “Lost in La Mancha.”
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Tropic Sprockets Goes Streaming: Tommaso
Though “Tommaso” may not be for everyone, Willem Dafoe is terrific and Ferrara’s depictions are confrontational and startling. Both talents are in force here making the film an experience, hypnotic and watchable.
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