Articles by Prabhjot Bains

'Devotion' Cruises but Never Soars

Directed by J.D. Dillard

PUBLISHED Nov 22, 2022

Jesse L. Brown was the first African-American aviator to complete the US Navy's basic flight training program. His time spent in both the s...

'Bardo' Is Beautiful but Empty

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

PUBLISHED Nov 16, 2022

The passage of time has morphed the cinematic landscape into one that consistently draws from the self, a plane of introspection that has g...

'Till' Is an Uneven Telling of a Powerful Story

Directed by Chinonye Chukwu

PUBLISHED Oct 19, 2022

The lynching and murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy who simply whistled at a white woman, became the catalyst for th...

With 'TÁR,' the Oscar Is Cate Blanchett's to Lose

Directed by Todd Field

PUBLISHED Oct 6, 2022

Early on in Todd Field's incendiary and masterful TÁR, his first film in 16 years, a pontification on the nature of time — especially in re...

'SMILE': The 10 Most Sinister Smiles in Film History

PUBLISHED Sep 20, 2022

Phyllis Diller, a prominent stand-up comedian best known for her outlandish screen persona and wholly bizarre (and borderline unnerving) ca...

'See How They Run' Knows It Isn't Great, Which Is Why It's So Good

Directed by Tom George

PUBLISHED Sep 12, 2022

Tom George's See How They Run opens with a narration that begrudgingly acknowledges the weakness of whodunits: "You seen one, you've seen '...

'Three Thousand Years of Longing' Feels Like It Lasts Centuries

Directed by George Miller

PUBLISHED Aug 24, 2022

George Miller's first film since the triumphant, intoxicating and euphoric Mad Max: Fury Road is a work to be admired more than loved. Mill...

'Funny Pages' Is Filthy, Beautiful Poetry

Directed by Owen Kline

PUBLISHED Aug 22, 2022

Owen Kline, best known as the troubled child in Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale, has made the year's cringiest comedy in Funny Page...