Year: 2023

‘The Persian Version’: Too many shifts in tones, times, and ideas crowd the earnest intentions

Jeff Mitchell

“The Persian Version” (2023) – “Oh girls.  Girls just wanna have fun.  They just wanna.  They just wanna.” – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983), performed by Cyndi Lauper and written by Robert Hazard Within the first 10 minutes (or so) of director/writer Maryam Keshavarz’s “The Persian Version” – with a “Based on a True Story…Sort Of” tagline on the movie poster – a pre-teen Leila (Chiara Stella) sneaks Michael Jackson, Prince, and Cyndi Lauper cassette tapes on a New York City trip to Iran. She then leads an…

‘Anatomy of a Fall’: Huller rises and delivers the best lead actress performance of the year so far

Jeff Mitchell

“Anatomy of a Fall” (2023) – “I need you to be precise.  Tell me everything.” – Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud) Director/co-writer Justine Triet’s courtroom drama, “Anatomy of a Fall”, feels precise in just about every moment.  However, a barrage of facts, figures, explanations, clarifications, and evidence – throughout a 152-minute runtime – cause knotty twists and turns in this absorbing legal rollercoaster, one that rides and rolls through mountains of intimate stress and anxiety in the French Alps. Very early in the first act, Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) falls to…

‘Butcher’s Crossing’ doesn’t quite make the cut

Jeff Mitchell

“Butcher’s Crossing” (2022) – Where would you take your dream vacation?  Maui?  Walt Disney World?  Los Angeles?  Paris?  London?  Tokyo?  The Bahamas?  In 2023, a family of four might choose one of those destinations, but in director/co-writer Gabe Polsky’s western, the year is 1874, and 20-something Harvard student Will Andrews (Fred Hechinger) wants to experience life. So, he packs his bags, leaves Boston, and heads out west to the tiny municipality of Butcher’s Crossing, Kansas, where the harsh saloon whiskey might be the gentlest creature comfort in town.  Its merchants…