This year saw one of the most zealously-guarded corporate empires of intellectual property spring a leak, as all the Magic Kingdom’s horses and men couldn’t keep Mickey Mouse from entering the public domain. Strictly speaking, what was no longer protected were the first three shorts in which that fabled rodent appeared, all made in 1928 […]

With its stationary long-shots of domestic life, “Family Time” is like the “Paranormal Activity” of dysfunctional-holiday-gathering movies: There’s a sense of spying on people who don’t realize they’re under a microscope. Of course, Tia Kouvo’s debut feature is duly scripted, directed and professionally acted. But her approach is so effectively low-key, you might occasionally forget […]

The well-acted, confidently crafted indie “Scrap” probes messy family dynamics with low-key but taut acuity, avoiding the usual poles of dysfunctional-clan comedy or high drama driven by yelling matches and shocking revelations. Since premiering at the 2022 Deauville Film Festival, American writer-director Vivian Kerr’s debut feature has been kicking around the festival circuit for more […]

Arguably one of the most insufferable protagonists in literature is the title figure in Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther” — a martyr to unrequited love who ultimately commits suicide. The author soon distanced himself from this early work, despite the fame it brought him. No doubt that was largely because the fuel […]