With 24 features, the 2021 Cannes competition is the largest since 1995 (recent years have hovered around 20), and Palme d’Or aspirants kept premiering right until the end. None of the last four films to debut strikes me as a serious contender for the top prize, to be announced Saturday night Cannes time, but you…

Imagine if mayflies, in addition to their two-day life-span, had money and power and opposable thumbs and whatever else it takes to run the world. That could be the way the trees see humans. Humans plan in decades. Trees plan in centuries. We learn from Jörg Adolph’s documentary “The Hidden Life of Trees” that the youth…

The relationship between athletes and the public can be somewhat inverse. On the side of the athletes, they work their entire lives at a particular sport, training for endless hours with countless drills and practices, until they make it to—through whatever combination of hard work and luck—the national or international stage. On the side of…

Morgan Neville shapes his documentaries so that they reflect their subject matter. “Twenty Feet from Stardom” has the exuberance of a backup singer; “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” has the warmth of Mister Rogers. His latest, and best yet, “Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain,” captures the restless curiosity of Anthony Bourdain, a world-famous chef and…

Just because you’re Isabelle Huppert doesn’t mean that every movie you take a lead role in has to be a provocative auteur opus. The French diva’s latest picture to be released in the U.S., given the not quite accurate English title “Mama Weed” from “La daronne,” which is French for something like “The Mum,” is…

“It was a place to grieve.” Modern dance choreographer Bill T. Jones says this about his most famous work, “D-Man In the Waters,” which premiered in 1989 to great acclaim (it “radiates life in the face of tragedy” declared one headline). To say “D-Man In the Waters” was a “response” to the AIDS plague is…