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The 93-year-old master documentarian Frederick Wiseman is often described as a filmmaker whose specialty is depicting the inner workings of institutions of varying sizes, and the way they evolve and change over time, whether it’s an army base, a mental hospital, a domestic violence shelter, a small town in Maine, a neighborhood in Queens, the New York Public Library.…

Emerald Fennell’s perverse dark comedy “Saltburn” stars Barry Keoghan as an aspirational young man named Oliver Quick, who befriends the charming and incredibly rich Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) at Oxford University. When Felix invites him to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family’s sprawling country estate, Oliver navigates–and manipulates–his way into the hearts of Felix’s…

With “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper tells the story of a generation-defining artistic innovator in the most traditional way possible: through the familiar tropes and linear narrative of a standard biopic. Directing and starring as the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, Cooper has crafted a film that’s technically dazzling but emotionally frustrating. The script he co-wrote…

During the pandemic, Baz Luhrmann decided to revisit his 2008 epic “Australia,” a film that already stressed bladders at 165 minutes. (I don’t think anyone left the film hoping it was longer.) He not only wanted to bring back the original downer ending that was focus-grouped out after bad test screenings, but he wanted to…

At first, the Japanese juvie drama “Monster” seems to be a tragedy about a troubled, maybe dangerous, pre-teen. Little things about Minato Mugino (Soya Kurokawa) stand out to his single mom, Saori (Sakura Ando), like a new haircut and a cut over Minato’s right ear. Some of these might be read as signs of a…