Posts by Neely Swanson

Opening on Santayana’s famous quote: “Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it,” director Peter Bebjak tells a story of horror and bravery that is now all too familiar. The setting is April 1944 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland close to the border of Czechoslovakia (now divided into the…

As far as my husband and I are concerned, dance is the ultimate art form. It combines music, art, and movement all in the service of story. It can be classical, modern, jazz, or abstract but all of the elements are there. “In Balanchine’s Classroom,” directed by Connie Hochman, you are given a front row…

It’s not often that someone can take what should be a compelling story and credible actors and flatten it to the point that it is better suited to mid-level television. But this is what director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has done with his film “Wife of a Spy.” Not everyone has felt as disappointed as I am…

“The Most Beautiful Boy in the World” chronicles the early life of Björn Andrésen who had a pivotal role in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film “Death in Venice.” At the time, much was made of Visconti’s world-wide search for a boy to play Tadzio, the obsession of middle-aged composer Gustav von Aschenbach played by Dirk Bogarde…

“Best Sellers,” is the features directing debut of Lina Roessler working from the first produced feature script by Anthon Grieco. “Best Sellers is a fun, swiftly moving small tale that benefits enormously from having the venerable Michael Caine as its center. Lucy Stanbridge has inherited her father’s famous publishing house and is failing miserably. So…

“Fauci,” the new documentary directed by John Hoffman and Janet Tobias, both past Emmy winners, is not so much a canonization of Dr. Anthony Fauci as it is an illumination of the journey of a life well-lived in the service of others. It would be so easy to shine a spotlight on someone whose prominence…

Scott Coffey, director of “It Takes Three,” began as an actor having bit roles in two John Hughes movies including the iconic “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Working with a script by Logan Burdick and Blair Mastbaum, based on that eternal chestnut, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, Coffey imagines “It Takes Three” as an homage…

“Black Magic Live” is a peek into the only all Black male revue in Las Vegas. Tracing its origins from the hit film “Chocolate City,” the Black version of “Magic Mike,” Jean-Claude La Marre and Eurika Pratts, co-owners of the brand, tell a decent story. Pratts segued into a career producing independent films after small…

All hail Sharon Horgan and James McAvoy! Their latest film, a saga of the lockdown, is a tour de force for them as actors with an almighty “assist” from brilliant director Stephen Daldry (“The Reader,” “Billy Elliot) working from an incisive, vinegar-laced script by Dennis Kelly (“Matilda” the stage musical, “Utopia,” the television series). The…

As long as there are audiences out there, there will be horror films. David Bruckner, the director, and the writing team of Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski have trod this path before. Attempting to combine supernatural elements with thriller undertones, they almost get it. But almost only counts in horseshoes and this young team opted…

Ann Hu drew from personal experience when she wrote and directed “Confetti” about her own child’s dyslexia. Hu’s film is heartfelt and sincere, tackling a difficult and abstract problem, but it never really takes off. Lan, a mother with a secret, works as a janitor at her daughter Meimei’s school. Meimei, age 8, the brunt…

Amanda Ripley wrote a New York Times best seller called The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got that Way. Tracy Droz Tragos, intrigued by the questions raised by Ripley, has just produced a documentary based on the book. The United States spends more per student on education than almost any other developed…

“Wildland,” the curiously disturbing film that is ultimately disappointing on a massive scale was directed by Jeanette Nordahl and written by Ingeborg Topsøe. Neither seem to understand the concept of basic structure and plot. Briefly, teenage Ida has just been orphaned and sent by social services to live with her only relative, Aunt Bodil. Ida…