Screen Test

 Brendan (Mahershala Ali) and Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) in “Wildwood.”   Photo via IMDb.com A leading contender for this year’s animation Oscar, “Wildwood” has an outside shot at a best picture nomination. Directed by Travis Knight, it frames old-fashioned storytelling with a more modern hipster sense of humor. On one hand, it’s a tale of magical spells in a deep, dark forest populated by talking animals and other fantastical beings. On the other, it’s a satirical yet loving sendup of post-hippie life in Portland, Oregon.  A feast of mind-boggling imagination, it may be the most amazing puppet show you’ve ever seen. Its deeply affecting characters and the wondrous worlds they live in are high-tech creations from Laika studios, shot one frame at a time by master cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and his crew. It’s adapted from a young readers’ graphic novel by Colin Meloy. His wife Carson Ellis did the illustrations. Meloy’s day job is being the frontman for the folky...

Tom Hiddleston, Genden Phuntsok, and Willem Dafoe in “Tenzing.” Apple TV photo via IMDb.com In 1953, the world thrilled to news that Mount Everest had been conquered.  People with no idea where the Himalaya Mountains or the countries of Tibet or Nepal were, still knew it was the highest mountain on earth, and climbing it was one of the greatest achievements of the 20th century.  The peak’s climber, soon to be knighted, was a New Zealand beekeeper, Edmund Hillary. All but buried in the story was his partner in the quest, whose footsteps reached the summit at the same moment as Hillary’s. The true “Hero of Everest” was Nepalese-Indian Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, according to mountaineering author Ed Douglas, whose book on Tenzing inspired a remarkable new film now streaming on Apple TV. “Tenzing” transforms this humble man from being a historical footnote to become, in his own fractured English, “Mr. Amazing.” Australian director Jennifer Peedom makes an impressive theatrical ...

  Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes in “You Can See Everything.” A24 photo via IMDb.com Don’t believe the title. Not only can you not see everything in this strange new movie, but after almost three hours watching the screen, you can’t be certain about anything you’ve observed. In a society that gives lip service to total transparency, “You Can See Everything” is more like a funhouse hall of mirrors, reflections of reflections, confusion mounting the more you look. It is, in some sense, a documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, the Stanford dropout who became a magazine cover girl for founding Theranos, a Silicon Valley startup producing a device it claimed could diagnose a patient from a single drop of blood.  She’s now serving a 14-year sentence in a Texas prison camp after being convicted of investor fraud. Starring the real live Elizabeth (you can call her Liz) for the first half, it’s a documentary … right?  Not so fast, my friend. In 2023, a few months before ...

  Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong in “The Social Reckoning.”          Columbia Pictures/Sony Releasing poster image via IMDb.com He made presidential briefings and government policy discussions sound poetic in “The West Wing.” But trying to find any poetry in Silicon Valley jargon– or even make it vaguely comprehensible – is a whole lot harder, even for a screenwriter as talented as Aaron Sorkin. The reason why is simple: Language is a human creation. High-tech is a human creation, too. But it’s antihuman as well. According to “The Social Reckoning,” it may be out to kill us … our spirits, at least, our kids’ self-esteem, and our capacity to think straight. Not to mention, our social institutions as collateral damage.  All of this to make one very weird man with zero social skills or empathy but an off-the-charts IQ, even more obscenely wealthy than he already is. This sounds like a horror show, but, sad to say, it’s a true stor...