This week, folks around the world have turned their attention toward Pyeongchang, South Korea, and the Olympic Winter Games, but you can only watch athletes slide themselves across frozen water for so long. If you need a break from breakneck turns, twists, and tricks over snow and ice, Up To Date's Film Critics have a handful of indie, foreign and documentary movie recommendations to freeze your go-for-gold fatigue.
Cynthia Haines
2018 Oscar-nominated short films: Animated
- This year, the Academy is recognizing animated shorts that include Kobe Bryant's paean to basketball, a film based on at 150-word poem, and delightfully-realistic jaunt with the amphibious denizens of an absent owner's garden.
2018 Oscar-nominated short films: Live action
- From the true tale of an armed twenty-something bringing a gun to an elementary school to a tense treatment of the tragedy of Emmett Till, these films will grab you quick and leave you wanting more.
2018 Oscar-nominated documentaries: Short subject
- By zooming in on personal stories of affected individuals, this year's nominees tackle some of the most troubling issues in the country today, including police conduct and race relations, elder care, and mental illness.
Steve Walker
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, R
- Annette Bening shines as the charmingly complicated Gloria Grahame, the 1950s film star whose deteriorating health and dwindling career lead her to reconnect with her much younger ex-boyfriend, played by Jamie Bell, and his family.
Happy End, R
- Isabelle Huppert stars in Austrian provocateur Michael Haneke's latest film, an intricate drama where a construction site accident, an overdose, and suicidal ideation figure in a family's struggle to maintain its status.
The Female Brain, Not rated
- Stand-up comic Whitney Cummings directed, co-wrote, and stars in this biting comedy about a neurologist whose studies of how male and female brains differ are played out in her own relationships and those of three other couples.
