Tag: Movie

AHFW’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #9 ‘Bad Education’

Jeff Mitchell

9. “Bad Education” – The United States’ education system has rightfully taken its share of lumps over the years (and decades, right?), and director Cory Finley (“Thoroughbreds” (2017)) delivers pummeling blows on Roslyn High School.  Based on an infamous true story, more than a smidge of corruption has plagued this Long Island institution, although no one would know it from an initial look at the brick, mortar, and friendly teachers and staff.  Geraldine Viswanathan plays an upstart teenage reporter who digs into hidden spaces far from the busy hallways, as…

AHFW’s Top 20 Films of 2020: #10 ‘Shiva Baby’

Jeff Mitchell

10. “Shiva Baby” – Danielle (Rachel Sennott), a struggling college student, isn’t keeping up with the Joneses these days, but she’ll need to stay one step ahead of her parents, her best pal Maya (Molly Gordon), distant aunts and uncles, five dozen other acquaintances, and her sugar daddy in a hilarious, nerve-racking comedy debut from director/writer Emma Seligman.  Sennott is flat-out marvelous, as Danielle attempts to find solace – and quite frankly trap doors – from sticky conversations, double-takes, and wide-spread embarrassment during a period of mourning, a shiva.  (Her…

AHFW Top 20 Films of 2020: #11 ‘Promising Young Woman’

Jeff Mitchell

11. “Promising Young Woman” – Carey Mulligan deserves an Oscar nomination as a femme fatale striking fear in the hearts of men.  Cassie (Mulligan) is a vigilante of sorts, but rather than ride NYC subways like Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) in “Death Wish” (1974), she pretends to be inebriated in local watering holes, dance clubs, and Irish bars.  She then terrifies her aggressors when they overstep their bounds.  Director/writer Emerald Fennell’s sobering – but also playful – screenplay takes dark turns and steers into some levity with Bo Burnham’s breezy,…