My Courses

Let’s rip off the band-aid: I’m shocked at how little I cared for “Masters of the Air.” “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific,” series produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, weren’t just perfect series that told the true stories of World War II servicemen. They were also incredible epics, taking viewers from big battles…

The Sundance Film Festival has been a launchpad for some of the most successful documentaries of the last several decades, and this year’s non-fiction slate was particularly robust. It wasn’t just the bio-docs about figures like Christopher Reeve, Luther Vandross, and Frida Kahlo, there was also a strong array of projects that broke out of…

There’s usually a sizable chunk of the Sundance lineup composed of weepy, crowd-pleasing dramedies that are entertaining in the moment but are, with time, easily forgettable. All three of the films in this dispatch, selections from the Premieres section, concern forlorn protagonists approaching major obstacles toward life-affirming ends. It’s a structure that offers few rewards,…