Tuner, now playing in theaters throughout Israel, is an offbeat, interesting drama and crime caper, with some funny moments.
Movie Reviews
Film review #5: The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, dir. Jerry Aronson (1993)
By Jonah Raskin
ALLEN GINSBERG performed his poetry in London, New York, Chicago, Prague and in other cities around the world, but his relationship with San Francisco stood out from all the others, not because he loved San Francisco more than any other place but rather because he wrote ‘Howl’ in San Francisco (and in Berkeley across the Bay).
Published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights in San Francisco in 1956, ‘Howl’ made Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, the bookshop and the city famous and, in some circles, infamous for avant-garde poetry that shouted obscenities, evoked jazz and condemned war, mind control and materialism.
So, it’s not surprising that on the centenary of Ginsberg’s birth on June 3rd, 1926, several of the city’s cultural landmark institutions went all out to celebrate. The events kicked off on May 11th at the Chapel in the Mission District where the Kronos Quartet performed ‘Howl’ and other poems.
Sponsored by City Lights, it featured headliners such as folk singer Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Digger co-founder Peter Coyote, Tongo Eisen-Martin, an ex-poet SF laureate, Dominique di Prima, daughter of Amiri Baraka and Diane di Prima, and novelist Kim Stanley Robinson. Tickets sold for $45; registration was required.
The centenary fêtes ended a month later on June 6th at the Roxy Theater, also in the Mission, with a screening of Jerry Aronson’s documentary The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg. In between the first and the last events there were readings of Ginsberg’s work at the Counterculture Museum in the Haight-Asbbury – one of the birthplaces of hippiedom – and at Bird & Beckett, a bookstore in the Glen Park neighborhood that hosts weekly jazz and monthly poetry readings.
Pictured above: Jerry Cimino of the Counterculture Museum reads Ginsberg at a centenary event
Along with Jerry Cimino, Steve Helig and Brandon Loberg, I read from Ginsberg’s vast oeuvre. My selection was ‘A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley’, which was written in 1955 at the same time that the poet wrote ‘Howl’, but that was not published until the 1960s. That event was fun. There was even cake.
On a more serious evening, I attended the screening of Jerry Aronson’s doc The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, along with my brother Daniel and Gloria Alonzo, a Latina, a friend of the family and a long time Ginsberg fan. First released in 1993, Aronson updated his doc when Ginsberg died in 1997.
A DVD was released in 2007 with added interviews with Paul McCartney, Bono, Yoko Ono, Johnny Depp and Patti Smith. Almost everybody in the world of rock and the Beats has wanted to be seen and heard with the poet who defied the state in Cuba, Czechoslovakia and the USA and who was never awarded a major literary prize in the land of his birth.
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg shows why he was so popular with the folks pursued by the paparazzi, though that was not Aronson’s explicit intention. The documentary moves from Ginsberg’s birth in 1926 to his death seventy years later. Surprisingly, it does not explore the writing of ‘Howl’, the publication of ‘Howl’ or the trial of ‘Howl’ in 1957 when Ferlinghetti was found not guilty of obscenity.
Hey, as most savvy San Franciscans knew, it was the society at large that was obscene, not the poet and his poem. Perhaps Aronson felt that there had already been enough attention to the San Francisco chapters of the Allen Ginsberg story to add it to his account.
The film ends with Ginsberg’s demise, but its emotional and visual crescendo occurs in Chicago in 1968 where the police attacked peaceful protesters, and where Ginsberg chanted and aimed to avoid what he called ‘a bloodbath’. In hindsight, he was clearly prescient. The demonstrations led to the election of Richard Nixon and five more years of the war in Vietnam. Ginsberg was as radical as Percy Bysshe Shelley who called poets ‘the unacknowledged legislators of the world’.
Pictured above: Allen Ginsberg’s gravestone
Aronson includes black-and-white archival footage, plus interviews with singer Joan Baez, Yippie Abbie Hoffman, Merry Prankster Ken Kesey and others, as well as highlights from Ginsberg’s TV appearances with mild mannered Dick Cavett and firebrand William F. Buckley, who seems to have been charmed by the cheeky poet who called the host a ‘conservative’ and described himself as ‘a faggot’.
Aronson’s documentary shows the gay poet as fearless and as an extraordinarily able performer. Ferlinghetti once observed that after his early success with Howl and Other Poems and Kaddish, Ginsberg didn’t develop as a poet, but that he remained a versatile performer of his own work his whole life.
The Life and Times shows that’s so. The film includes emotionally moving clips of Ginsberg’s loving step-mother Edith, his poet/father Louis, and a cast of thousands – the usual suspects – who gathered with him in the streets of Prague, Chicago and elsewhere.
If you want an introduction to Allen Ginsberg, his work and the era that shaped him and that he in turn shaped, you can’t go wrong with Aronson’s well-put together, entertaining documentary. And if you want a journey down memory lane to refresh your own album of Ginsberg’s images this is also the place to go. There will probably not be this many loving celebrations of the life and work of the poet who wrote, in ‘America’, ‘go fuck yourself with your atom bomb’. Not for another 100 years.
Continue Reading
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: June 26th, 2026 / 08:03 PM
SUPERGIRL movie poster | ©2026 Warner Bros./DC Studios
Rating: PG-13
Stars: Milly Adcock, David Corenswet, Eve Ridley, Matthias Schoenaerts, Diarmaid Murtagh, Jason Momoa, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham
Writer: Ana Nogueira, based on characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Director: Craig Gillespie
Distributor: Warner Bros./DC Studios
Release Date: June 26, 2026
The new SUPERGIRL doesn’t have that “Eureka! This is how you do this now” spark that galvanized its immediate franchise predecessor, last year’s SUPERMAN. Director Craig Gillespie and screenwriter Ana Nogueira, basing the film on characters created by DC Comics’ Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, probably wisely, aren’t going for that.
Instead, the SUPERGIRL makers are intent on providing a lively adventure, getting to the point quickly and letting the action unspool with unquestionably strong motivation, abetted by plenty of punch-ups, kicking and frequent explosions.
Supergirl, aka Kara Zor-El (Milly Adcock), is from the now-dead planet Krypton, just like her cousin Clark/Kal-El/Superman (David Corenswet). However, where Clark has chosen to remain on Earth, where the yellow sun gives him superpowers that allow to help Earth’s residents, Kara likes to party on planets that have a red sun, where she has no unusual abilities.
This is because Kara seems to have taken to heart a dictum from a different comic book universe – with great power comes great responsibility – and decided the inverse is true: with no power comes no responsibility.
We get insight into exactly why Kara is so duty-averse over the course of SUPERGIRL, and it’s probably not a spoiler to say that she re-examines some attitudes as events unfold.
Kara plans to celebrate her twenty-third birthday on a backwater red sun planet. The bar where Kara chooses to drink is entered by preteen Ruthye Knoll (Eve Ridley), whose family has been murdered by brigands, led by the horrendous Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts). Ruthye is out for revenge. Kara thinks Ruthye is a bit young and pure-hearted to be on a murderous quest.
Even on a planet with a red sun, though, Kara is still handy with fists and feet. Ruthye sees what Kara can do and concludes she is the ideal ally. Kara absolutely refuses to help. Then something occurs that credibly rouses Kara to do whatever it takes to achieve her aims, which sort of line up with Ruthye’s.
No explanation is needed for why Kara feels such urgency, which we easily share. Her concern for Ruthye is understandable and her connecting to larger purpose is shown rather than spoken.
Intriguingly, the aesthetics of SUPERGIRL are largely those of STAR WARS, with some MAD MAX and BLADE RUNNER thrown in. The filmmakers have a good time with all sorts of utterly nonhuman alien people and figuring out how to make interplanetary versions of familiar items like vending machines.
The pace is pleasingly brisk and the structure doesn’t require much exposition. When they hit a hard-to-answer question like why Kara is Supergirl while Clark is Superman, they acknowledge it and then get out from under without irritating anybody.
For anyone wondering about the veracity of the recording from Superman’s parents that appeared in SUPERMAN, a quick line of dialogue here confirms it (sorry, Jor-El supporters).
There is the expected amount of CGI involved, including a great motion-capture performance by Kara’s dog Krypto (modeled upon executive producer/SUPERMAN director James Gunn’s dog), but a lot of the stunts and makeup appear gratifyingly practical.
Adcock is fine in all of Kara’s moods, from wasted to resistant to determined, with a delightful reaction to feeling her body’s response to the yellow sun. Ridley is an appealing young hero, and Corenswet offers wholesome support. Schoenaerts lets Krem revel in his own soft-spoken vileness, and Jason Momoa enthusiastically portrays an intergalactic bounty hunter. David Krumholtz is affecting as Kara’s scientist father.
SUPERGIRL isn’t going to redefine superhero movies, but it’s a perfectly enjoyable example of the form.
Related: Movie Review: THE GET OUT
Related: Movie Review: CAMP
Related: Movie Review: LEVITICUS
Related: Movie Review: DISCLOSURE DAY
Related: Movie Review: KRAKEN
Related: Movie Review: FIND YOUR FRIENDS
Related: Movie Review: CHUM
Related: Movie Review: CAROLINA CAROLINE
Related: Movie Review: THE SUMMONING
Related: Movie Review: BACKROOMS
Related: Movie Review: SPEED DEMON
Related: Movie Review: PRESSURE
Related: Movie Review: PASSENGER
Related: Movie Review: I LOVE BOOSTERS
Related: TV Review: GREAT PERFORMANCES: STAGEBOUND
Related: Movie Review: OBSESSION
Related: Movie Review: LIFEHACK
Related: Movie Review: IS GOD IS
Related: Movie Review: AFFECTION
Related: Movie Review: ITCH!
Related: Movie Review: HOKUM
Related: Movie Review: ANIMAL FARM
Related: Movie Review: OVER YOUR DEAD BODY
Related: Movie Review: LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY
Related: Movie Review: HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Related: Movie Review: NORMAL
Related: Movie Review: FACES OF DEATH
Related: Movie Review: EXIT 8
Related: Movie Review: READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME
Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X
Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: SUPERGIRL
Related
Related Posts:
Movie Reviews
Film review: ‘Tuner’ mixes classical music, crime, and Dustin Hoffman | The Jerusalem Post
It co-stars Dustin Hoffman in a story of a young piano tuner, Niki (Leo Woodall), a former music prodigy with perfect pitch who suffers from hyperacusis, a condition that makes him extraordinarily sensitive to loud noises.
In a series of events that are a bit improbable but that seem quite credible while you’re watching, Niki discovers his finely tuned hearing gives him a great talent for safecracking, which brings him to the attention of a crime gang.
It features a clever, often surprising screenplay, co-written by its director, Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar for the documentary, Navalny) and Robert Ramsey. There are also wonderful performances from the cast, which also includes distinguished actress Tovah Feldshuh of Nobody Wants This and Fauda star Lior Raz.
The characters have a nice, funny raport
When Tuner opens, Niki is working in a piano-tuning business in New York with a former musician, Harry Horowitz (Hoffman).
The beefy, laconic, young man treats the garrulous, wisecracking Harry with respect, listening patiently to all his jokes and stories about the good old days when he worked with jazz greats.
These two have a nice rapport, as Niki drives Harry all over the New York area in an old van and eats in diners with him.
Niki does the work while Harry sits on a sofa, critiquing him.
The two stick out like sore thumbs in the many mansions where they work on spectacular pianos that haven’t been played in decades, for clients who ask them if they can also repair toilets and modems.
Harry, who never made much of a living despite his talent, has fallen on hard times, and he and his wife, Marla (Feldshuh), are barely scraping by. Niki is also broke.
Recognizing what a great musician Niki is, Harry tries to cajole him into playing again, but the younger man refuses, living an isolated life and trying not to draw attention to himself.
The three incidents that set the plot in motion
Harry has forgotten the combination to his safe and needs to open it. When Niki goes on YouTube to look at a video on how to do it, he discovers that his sensitive hearing makes him a genius at safecracking.
Harry becomes ill and, due to a mess with Medicare, suddenly falls into a huge debt; and Niki meets Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), an extremely ambitious pianist and composing student, who is astounded by his perfect pitch.
Soon, Niki’s talent for safecracking draws the attention of Uri (Lior Raz), an Israeli who runs a bogus security company, where he uses his knowledge of his client’s homes and passwords to steal what he contends are minor trinkets, but which add up to big money for his gang, much like Jon Hamm’s character in the Apple TV series, Your Friends and Neighbors.
Raz hams it up as a character who fits the stereotype of the obnoxious Israeli in the US, and lords it over his supposedly bright accomplice, Yoni (Gil Frank), and his much dimmer nephew, Benny (Nissan Sakira).
Much of the comedy in the movie comes from Uri browbeating the two, and if you can understand the Hebrew, it’s even funnier than the subtitles.
Criticisms of Tuner
Niki’s romance with Ruthie, which develops quickly, feels a little convenient at times, though the screenplay paints a realistic picture of the competitive world of high-level music students. You know, for most of the movie, that eventually Niki will reveal to her that he was once a great pianist, and when it comes, it’s something of an anti-climax.
After Hoffman’s character gets sick, he disappears from the rest of the movie except for a couple of scenes, and that’s too bad. It’s great to see Hoffman having fun as Harry, and the scenes where he and Niki banter help humanize the younger man, making him more likable and less self-centered.
Woodall is one of the most in-demand young actors. He played a hunky love interest in both Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and the Netflix series Vladimir; he also appeared in the second season of The White Lotus.
He has a buff body and conventional leading-man good looks, and generally plays confident, happy-go-lucky guys, which means he is cast against type here.
Niki is the kind of role that might seem better suited for actors like Josh O’Connor, Jeremy Allen White, or Timothée Chalamet. Woodall has to work hard to convince us he is withdrawn and feels out of place in all the mansions where he tunes pianos, but his charm wins out, and soon, you come to accept him in the role.
Mixed music and mixed genres
The soundtrack features a mix of classical music and jazz, and it’s clear it was made by a director who appreciates both.
Tuner settles neatly into a mini-genre of movies that feature plot lines that combine piano-playing characters and crime, that include James Toback’s Fingers with Harvey Keitel, and Jacques Audiard’s remake of it, The Beat that My Heart Skipped with Romain Duris; Francois Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player with Charles Aznavour; and Eugenio Mira’s Grand Piano with Elijah Wood. It also recalls the spirit of Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces, which features Jack Nicholson in one of his best performances; here as a piano prodigy who has rejected his oppressive family and become an oil field worker.
Tuner shares some of the bleakness typical of 1970s films, like Fingers and Five Easy Pieces. At times, the movie moves jarringly between brooding, almost noir-like darkness and scenes with the chatty Harry or the bumbling gangsters.
It might have been a stronger film if Roher had gone in one direction instead of mixing genres, but it would likely have been less entertaining.
“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” This is one of the culminating lines from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit 2015 musical “Hamilton,” but it’s also the animating force behind Michael Sarnoski’s “The Death of Robin Hood,” starring Hugh Jackman in the title role. This legendary figure of English folklore has a specific meaning attached to his name, which is synonymous with the altruistic impulse to redistribute wealth. But in his take on the tale, focusing on the end of his life, Sarnoski suggests that perhaps Robin Hood wasn’t such a good guy, even if he was robbing from the rich to give to the poor. It all depends on who’s telling the story, right?
Sarnoski burst onto the scene in 2021 with his debut feature “Pig,” in which he outfitted Nicolas Cage with a long gray wig and sent him on a dangerous quest (to find his beloved, valuable pet). He does something similar in “The Death of Robin Hood,” outfitting Jackman in a long gray wig and sending him on a quest (to achieve some kind of salvation).
But first, Sarnoski has to establish that this Robin Hood isn’t the one we remember from the movies — he’s not the dashing cartoon Disney fox, or Errol Flynn, or Kevin Costner, or Cary Elwes, or Russell Crowe, or even Taron Egerton. No, this Robin Hood is much worse, sleeping in matted filth on the moors, reduced to a feral life of constant vigilance against murderous revenge-seekers for the years of evil deeds he’s carried out with his compatriot, Little John (Bill Skarsgård).
Now called Edward, Little John has achieved some measure of domesticity, but still, he and Robin go a-murdering once again, resulting in a yet another vengeful attack from a relative of their victims. A wounded Robin ends up in an idyllic priory on a coastal island, tended to by a healer, Brigid (Jodie Comer), learning the ropes from the local leper (Murray Bartlett). In this oasis, Robin’s identity is unknown, and he finds the space to embrace a gentler side of himself, particularly with Little John/Edward’s daughter, Little Margaret (Faith Delaney).
Set on the misty outlying islands of the North Atlantic, with its blend of bloody, brutal violence, primitive spirituality and meditative tone, “The Death of Robin Hood” is situated in the realm of films like David Lowery’s “The Green Knight” and Robert Eggers’ “The Northman.” Cinematographer Pat Scola pulls some arresting images out of the fire and fog, and the score of largely traditional Celtic music by Jim Ghedi is easily one of the best of the year. The film is a fine showcase for a different kind of performance from Jackman, and Comer is always a compelling screen presence.
But “The Death of Robin Hood” isn’t as hallucinatory or weird as it could — or should — be. Sarnoski gestures at bleakness but feints from full existential crisis; he tries and fails to be witchy. Despite all the mud and blood, nothing about this film is particularly earthy or embodied. It ends up as this profoundly dull and utterly pointless commentary on the concept of narrative and mythology. “What if Robin Hood was a bad guy?” OK, what of it? The best concept that Sarnoski presents here is the hell of living in an endless cycle of vengeance, but he allows his anti-hero to escape that all too cleanly and conveniently. This Robin Hood is just an old, tired man who ultimately finds some peace at the end of his life, even if it’s unearned.
As an audience, we’re left wondering what all of this is for, and who it’s for. Why trouble the Robin Hood myth at all, and why now? One can’t help but cynically wonder if the inspiration for this project was merely the convenience of recognizable intellectual property and available financing from Screen Ireland. This theory might be creatively pessimistic, but it is a nagging question, especially when the ones posed by the film are already so stale and tired. Expect no revelations from “The Death of Robin Hood” except the one that’s announced in the title.
‘The Death of Robin Hood’
2 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violence)
Running time: 2:03
How to watch: In theaters June 19
-
Minnesota2 minutes agoWho’s the greatest Minnesota high school athlete of all time? Vote now in ‘USA 250’ poll
-
Mississippi10 minutes ago‘Mississippi firsts’ from Neshoba County Fair
-
Missouri12 minutes agoLake of the Ozarks ranks among cleanest US lakes, study finds
-
Montana18 minutes agoMissoula and Western Montana neighbors: Obituaries for June 27
-
Nebraska25 minutes agoExtreme Heat Watches and Heat Advisories issued across Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota
-
Nevada27 minutes agoNevada QB Thaddeus Thatcher commits to Oregon State, breaks down his decision
-
New Hampshire32 minutes agoGoing with the flow in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region – The Boston Globe
-
New Jersey40 minutes agoMore than 681,000 New Jersey children to receive Summer EBT benefits – WRNJ Radio
