The final film in the Little Theatre’s annual Women’s History Month Film Series, “Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts” is the Indonesian feminist outlaw western you never knew you needed in your life. The film opens as a gang of bandits arrive on the doorstep of the recently widowed Marlina (the excellent Marsha Timothy), announcing […]
Adam Lubitow
Film critic for CITY Newspaper, writer, iced coffee addict, and dinosaur enthusiast.
Posted inMovies
Film review: ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’
The appeal of the “Pacific Rim” films is right there in their gloriously dopey premise: giant robots fighting giant monsters. If reading that sentence doesn’t immediately fill you with a sense of, “Yes, that sounds like a splendid way to spend two hours in a dark movie theater,” you’re probably wise not to waste your […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Review: ‘An American in Paris’ at the Auditorium Theater
Maybe it’s a side effect of watching movies for a living, but I can’t help seeing ways the Hollywood franchise mindset has wormed its way into other art forms — Broadway being no exception. The prequel, sequel, and spin-off mentality of modern entertainment has led to a compulsive need to explain everything and provide backstory […]
Posted inMovies
Film preview: ‘The Leisure Seeker’
Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren star in the alternately touching and enervating comic drama “The Leisure Seeker,” about Ella and John Spencer, who’ve been married for 50 years when they decide to set out on one final road trip in their beloved 1975 Winnebago, the name of which lends the film its title. With nary […]
Posted inMovies
Eastman Audio Research Studio presents Image/Sound Festival
The brand-new Rochester event seeks to bring together audiences with an appreciation for experimental film, music, and avant-garde art in a two-day celebration of image and sound, and is presented by Eastman Audio Research Studio (EARS).
Posted inMovies
Film preview: ‘Love, Simon’
The coming out narrative isn’t new, but “Love, Simon” is the first film to center on the story of a gay teen to get a wide release from a major studio. Adam describes how it felt to sit in a Regal theater and hear the young, mostly straight audience cheer and applaud when two male characters share a kiss for the first time.
Posted inMovies
Film review: ‘A Wrinkle in Time’
“A Wrinkle in Time” arrived in theaters heavy with the weight of expectation. As an adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved 1962 sci-fi novel and the first $100 million movie from a black female director, the film serves as quite the challenge for director Ava DuVernay. Add in the fact that the material she’s adapting has […]
Posted inMovies
Film preview: ‘The Party’
The idea of the dinner party that goes horribly wrong has served as the premise to any number of versatile, genre-spanning narratives over the years. Written and directed by Sally Potter, “The Party” offers little to break the mold of what’s come before, but thanks to a first-rate cast it still manages to be a […]
Posted inMovies
Film review: ‘The Insult’
Directed by Lebanese filmmaker Ziad Doueiri (“The Attack”), “The Insult” is a thorny morality play about life in the Middle East, as a minor altercation between two men ends up in a court case that ignites long-simmering tensions and anger which eventually threatens to tear their country apart. Tony (Adel Karam) is a hot-headed but […]
Posted inMovies
Film preview: ‘A Fantastic Woman’
Fresh off its win for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards this past weekend, “A Fantastic Woman” tells the story of a headstrong young transgender woman named Marina — the fantastic woman of the title — as she faces down a world that seems unwilling to see her that way.
Posted inMovies
Live blog: 2018 Oscars
Join CITY’s film critic, Adam Lubitow, for a live blog during the 2018 Academy Awards broadcast on Sunday, March 4. The red carpet pre-show starts at 7 p.m., and the ceremony begins at approximately 8:30 p.m. A bit earlier in the day, Adam will lead a pre-Oscars discussion at 3 p.m. at the Little Theatre […]
Posted inMovies
Film review: ‘Annihilation’
Director Alex Garland follows up “Ex Machina” — his excellent, Oscar-winning examination of man and machine — with another challenging sci-fi mind-bender. Based on a trilogy of novels by Jeff VanderMeer (though veering significantly from that source material), “Annihilation” follows the members of an expedition team sent to explore a mysterious, reality-warping zone known as […]
