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: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The film is as gripping and quirky as Marielle Heller’s previous outing, "Diary of a Teenage Girl." A kind of Patricia Highsmith story as if illustrated by Robert Crumb, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is both entertaining and human.
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Tropic Sprockets: At Eternity’s Gate
This is a vibrational and moody reading of van Gogh. As we see voyeuristically, the painter is ultimately boxed in, yellowed and stiff, a commodity for onlookers, a human work of art. Schnabel, in showing these hypnotic images, reveals Vincent to be art's first saint, who lived, suffered and painted, seeking a new religion in natural light.
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Front Row at the Movies: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Lee Israel had been a successful biographer, penning books about celebs ranging from Katherine Hepburn to Tallulah Bankhead to Estée Lauder. But her career was failing, she faced financial troubles, and she battled alcoholism -- and that's when she turned to forging celebrity letters.
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Front Row at the Movies: The Gospel at Colonus
This retelling of a classic Greek myth as an African American gospel reminds me of Orson Welles’ modern-dress version of Julius Caesar or his so-called voodoo “MacBeth.” But “The Gospel of Colonus” stands on its own, shining a joyous light on the black religious experience with some mighty fine singing and dancing that will make you say “Amen.”
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Front Row at the Movies: Shoplifters
Thanks to his gentle dramas of families in flux, Kore-eda has emerged as the most feted Japanese filmmaker of his generation. He disrupts our emotional makeup with such a quiet, tranquil approach that the impact catches us by surprise.
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Tropic Sprockets: Shoplifters
Director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Still Walking) directs a natural, heartfelt story of a family where nothing is as it seems. In minute and detailed episodes, Kore-eda deftly offers a portrait of a family on the edge that nevertheless lives to the fullest with spirit.
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Tropic Sprockets: Free Solo
Alex Honnold is a human being of supernatural skill, but one wonders when he will stop. Climbing free solo is his first love, his meaning, his spirit and how he is wired. But he is driven above all, which raises disturbing questions: where is his next rock encounter? Are his wars endless and where, if ever, will they end?
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Front Row at the Movies: Hermitage Revealed
Not everybody will get a chance to tour this former royal palace of Catherine the Great, today a repository for more than three million historical artifacts. But you can do just that — without having to buy an airline ticket — this Saturday or Sunday at Tropic Cinema.
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Front Row at the Movies: If Beale Street Could Talk
In “If Beale Street Could Talk,” James Baldwin gave us a surprisingly tender love story that remains “ultimately optimistic” despite tragic consequences. Barry Jenkins — the filmmaker who won an Oscar for the LGBT-themed “Moonlight” — now has turned Baldwin’s novel into a haunting, lyrical movie.
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Tropic Sprockets: If Beale Street Could Talk
The film is a human story, touching upon many elements. Part Romeo & Juliet, part sociological critique, yet ultimately an existential suspense story of love under the weight of paranoia, the film is a brilliant example of all of these concepts.
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