movie reviews

“ ’Round Midnight,” Revisited: A Feast of Music and Acting

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Don’t trust the credits. Just as producer credits are sometimes handed out like bonuses, screenwriter credits often fail to reflect work that directors do on scripts they shoot. But one of the most notable uncredited contributions to a screenplay is that of a performer. The writing credits for the French director Bertrand Tavernier’s 1986 jazz … Read more

“Perfect Days” and the Perils of Minimalism

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Fantasy comes in many forms, and one of them arises when a work of scrupulous realism strains plausibility to the point that it plays like mere wish fulfillment. The German director Wim Wenders’s latest film, “Perfect Days” (which opens Wednesday), is such a work. Set in Tokyo, it’s a story about a man who’s a … Read more