CITY Magazine. Arts. Music. Culture.
Rochester, New York's source for arts, music, events listings and culture, on the web and in print every month. Offering alternative news since 1971.
Film critic for CITY Newspaper, writer, iced coffee addict, and dinosaur enthusiast.
Fresh off his generational comedy, “While We’re Young,” Noah Baumbach reteams with Greta Gerwig
for “Mistress America.”
An electronic tone poem of millennial angst set to a throbbing bassline, “We Are Your Friends” focuses on aspiring EDM artist Cole (Zac Efron) and his bros — Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez), Mason (Jonny Weston), and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer) — living it up in the San Fernando Valley, hoping to find their fortune. Though the story […]
Using a treasure trove of private audio recordings (reportedly more than 300 hours’ worth) made by actor Marlon Brando throughout his life, “Listen to Me Marlon” offers a deeply personal tour of the late performer’s life. Though undeniably one of the greats, Brando’s legacy was diminished somewhat in his later years as he gained a […]
In “Jauja,” Viggo Mortensen stars as a Danish engineer, Gunnar Dinesen, tasked with aiding the Argentine army in exploring a remote, wind-swept region of Patagonia in the late-19th century. When his 15-year-old daughter, Inge (Viilbjรธrk Malling Agger), runs off with a young soldier in the middle of the night, Dinesen sets off after her. From […]
“Are they supposed to be sexy?” A clearly perplexed man at one point poses this question to Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley), the 15-year-old protagonist of “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.” He’s referring to drawings, depicting various sex acts and genitalia, that appear throughout the amateur cartoonist’s sketchbook, though he might as well be talking […]
German director Christian Petzold’s atmospheric noir drama, “Phoenix,” centers around concentration camp survivor Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss, in a magnificent performance), whose brutal experiences have left her disfigured. With the aid of her loyal friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf), Nelly is brought to Berlin to receive reconstructive surgery, a procedure which is a success but leaves […]
The journalistic relationship between interviewer and interviewee is complex, delicate, and often precarious. On one hand, writer and subject are simply strangers making conversation — as benignly normal a situation as one can imagine. But they’ve each been forcibly entered into this exchange, by necessity bringing their own (often opposing) agendas to the table. The […]
Rock singer Ricki Rendazzo (Meryl Streep) once dreamed of filling stadiums, but in the years since she first set off on her career, she’s settled for a weekly gig playing for a small but loyal crowd of regulars at a divey bar in Tarzana, California. As “Ricki and the Flash” begins, Ricki receives a call […]
Subtlety and restraint aren’t qualities one expects to find in most modern thrillers, but “The Gift,” whose marketing has suggested a sleazy domestic thriller in the vein of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” or “Single White Female,” finds ways to surprise its audience at every turn. Marking the impressive directing debut of actor Joel […]
The latest from Aardman Animations — the stop-motion masters behind Wallace and Gromit — follows the misadventures of the titular free-spirited sheep and his fleeced brethren when they attempt to secure themselves a day off from the dull routine of farm life. Through an imaginatively executed series of mishaps, the flock (along with their dog, […]
Here we are once again: another year, another Woody Allen film. The prolific director’s latest cinematic endeavor comes packed with the filmmaker’s trademarks: erudite intellectuals sit around conversing about philosophy and morality until an ill-conceived scheme (or two) comes along to shake up the snow-globe sized world they inhabit. But as in Allen’s past few […]
Whenever a famous actor undergoes a major physical transformation in preparation for a role, there’s a tendency for the details of their process to overshadow any actual acting involved, as though the ability to employ a personal trainer and dietician is the true indicator of what distinguishes a great performance from the rest. These types […]
