To most people Benjamin Millepied is both the choreographer of Darren Aronofsky’s Oscar-nominated film "Black Swan" and the husband of Oscar-winner Natalie Portman, for the same film. In the world of ballet, however, Benjamin Millepied has been a trailblazer for young dancers as the Director of the Paris Opera Ballet during a span of two years starting in 2014.

I fear I might suffer from a certain cultural disconnect reviewing Halkawt Mustafa’s “El Clásico,” the winner of Tribeca’s 2016 award for Best Cinematography in an International Narrative Feature Film. The film hinges on a presumption that football, or “soccer” as it’s known here in the States, is a powerful enough force that the goodwill of one of its players can literally be enough to dissuade deeply-felt prejudices

I remember how many people were caught totally off guard by Ricky Gervais’s “The Invention of Lying” (2009), a film with a simple premise about a man who could lie in a world where nobody else could, when it suddenly became a vicious condemnation of religion. Gervais’s character, the liar, invented the concept of a “Man in the Sky” who would take good people to an afterlife if they followed “ten rules.”

As the credits rolled for Tom Tykwer’s “A Hologram for the King,” my friend and colleague Hubert Vigilla from over at Flixist.com leaned over and whispered, “This is the film Cameron Crowe has been trying to make for years.” “Yeah,” I replied. “If Samuel Beckett had written the first act.” I suspect many people might be put off from the film’s tonal whiplash. What begins as an Absurdist (in the theatrical sense) fever dream

I’ve restarted this review four times because I can’t quite figure out how to marshal my thoughts on Cecilia Aldarondo’s "Memories of a Penitent Heart." Some documentaries strike you because they focus on interesting topics like wars, science, or bizarre people. Some are necessary historical documents, capturing footage of transformative moments that changed the course of humanity. "Memories of a Penitent Heart" claims to be neither.

In all seventy-six minutes of Benjamin Ree’s new documentary “Magnus” I’m not sure if I can remember ever seeing Magnus Carlsen, the world’s highest ranked chess player, ever smiling during a game. He smiles plenty when he wins, but that’s not the same. During the games his eyes scrunch up and his face tightens into a mask of marbled concentration. The happiest we ever see him is when he tears himself away from the obsession that

Director Gerardo Chijona liberally name-drops a plethora of Hollywood films in “The Human Thing”: “3:10 to Yuma” (1957), “The Godfather Part 2” (1974), “Terminator 2” (1991), and even 'The Sopranos.' One would expect that with such a macho pedigree of visceral violence “The Human Thing” would be some kind of high-octane thriller or cinematic homage. But it’s neither. The film is one of words and literature centered on

Sophia Takal’s “Always Shine” and Deb Shoval’s “AWOL” have many things in common. For starters, both are films about a duo of women by female directors—the former a jagged psychological thriller about two actresses, the latter a bittersweet lesbian romance. Both female duos find themselves pushed to the edge by a domineering patriarchy, the former by the demanding and objectifying world of fashion and filmmaking, the latter

Steve Aoki is one of the most influential DJs in the history of electronica, being one of the first artists to combine hardcore punk with dance music to create a genre unlike anything heard in the U.S. before. After a decade of grinding his way through underground gigs and festivals he has become one of the biggest acts on the planet. Playing over 300 shows a year, he has been touted as one of the most recorded people in history.

The comedy HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE which played at Tribeca on Thursday has made me want to go back and explore the filmography of director Taika Waititi. Because if HUNT is any indication, Waititi is likely destined to become New Zealand’s answer to America’s Wes Anderson and England’s Edgar Wright—a highly-idiosyncratic and stylized comedic filmmaker. But whereas the bulk of Anderson and