Alessandro Nivola

The Brutalist

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Close-up of László smoking

The Brutalist did well at the Oscars, winning three (Best Actor, Music, Cinematography) from a total of ten nominations. It is the sort of film the Academy likes – it’s got class written all over it, from the fancy opening credits and the high-end VistaVision process (not used for more than 60 years), to its built-in intermission and tackling of a pertinent issue. To wit: immigrants get the job done, as Lin-Manuel Miranda put it in Hamilton. One immigrant, in this case, an architect who survives the death camps of Europe, arrives in proud and confident America as it’s enjoying its finest flowering and then, through a series of adventures with a moneyed American … Read more

Kraven the Hunter

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Kraven in leather jerkin

A colossally charmless superhero movie, Kraven the Hunter got pummelled by the critics and didn’t do well at the box office. But never mind all that, who should we blame? Partly an origin story, it heavily features Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the lead role, though Levi Miller plays the youthful Kraven, the Russian oligarch’s son who is mauled by a lion and acquires some of its powers after a drop of its blood mingles with his own. Or was it the spooky vial of something administered to the near-dead Sergei (aka Kraven) by Calypso Ezili (Dianna Babnicova when young, Ariana DeBose when older)? You see, even there, in the birth event of this superhero, … Read more

The Many Saints of Newark

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Dickie (far right) and family

The pre-publicity for The Many Saints of Newark made much – all, actually – of the fact that this was the origin story of Tony Soprano, fictional mob boss and kingpin of the TV show The Sopranos. Take a quick look at the IMDb page and there, at the very top, the blurb says – “Witness the making of Tony Soprano.” The casting of Michael Gandolfini, son of James (who played Tony Soprano in the TV series), reinforced the idea – here’s how Tony Soprano became Tony Soprano. But. But. But. Whatever The Many Saints of Newark is, what it certainly isn’t is a film about Tony Soprano. He’s at best peripheral to … Read more