John Lithgow – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

JIMPA – Review by Valerie KALFRIN

January 27, 2026February 1, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Aud Mason-Hyde, Jim Hyde, jimpa, John Lithgow, lbgtq+, Olivia Colman, Sophie Hyde

John Lithgow bares all as an aging gay activist in Jimpa, a well-meaning but meandering multigenerational drama partly based on filmmaker Sophie Hyde’s life. As the title character—a family nickname for “Grandpa”—Lithgow models nude, cruises gay bars, and talks with friends about struggles to live openly. He can be blunt to the point of rudeness, calling his nonbinary grandchild “grandthing” or criticizing them for using the word queer, for instance, when he and others fought to use gay without shame. It’s a frank portrait and a tribute to Hyde’s late father, Jim Hyde, to whom the film is dedicated. The problem with Jimpa is that the focus isn’t on Jim alone.

Reviews

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN – Review by Nadine Whitney

February 17, 2025February 18, 2025 Nadine Whitney Geoffrey Rush, George Henare, Gretchen Peterson, James Ashcroft, John Lithgow, Matt Healey, Matthew Lambourn, The Rule of Jenny Pen

James Ashcroft’s grand guignol in a New Zealand nursing home recognises one inescapable truth: old age and living with diminished abilities is terrifying. The Rule of Jenny Pen is as much about institutional neglect as it is about the psychotic Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) terrorising the frail residents of Royal Pine Mews with his pugnacious puppet. Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow sustain the ghastly pas de deux with their respective and storied talents complemented by the surreal editing by Gretchen Peterson, Matt Healey’s off-kilter camerawork, and Matthew Lambourn’s sickly sound design. Elder abuse is not for the faint hearted, and Ashcroft’s work is vicious and mean-spirited which makes it either an instant psychological horror classic or a sickly spectacle. The Rule of Jenny Pen is an ugly and distressing film

Reviews

CONCLAVE – Review by Susan Granger

October 29, 2024 Susan Granger Carlos Diehz, Conclave, isabella rossellini, John Lithgow, ralph fiennes, Robert Harris, stanley tucci

The psychological thriller Conclave revolves around the selection of a new Pope, a mysteriously secretive process that begins with the death of the Holy Father whose private chambers are immediately sealed as Roman Catholic Cardinals from all over the world descend on the Vatican to be locked in the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes for his successor. “Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. If there was only certainty and no doubt, there would be no mystery and therefore no need for faith,” intones British Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), the anguished, reform-minded Dean of the College of Cardinals who presides over the proceedings. “Let us pray that God grants us a pope who doubts.”

Reviews

CONCLAVE – Review by T.J. Callahan

October 21, 2024October 20, 2024 T. J. Callahan Carlos Diehz, Conclave, isabella rossellini, John Lithgow, ralph fiennes, Robert Harris, stanley tucci

As the Chalice Turns, Conclave isn’t non-fiction, but it plays like the ‘E! True Vatican Story’ of the search for a new Holy Father. The saintly soap opera is full of secrets, scandals and sacraments. The Robed and the Popeless. Based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris, Conclave follows Dean Lawrence, played impeccably by Ralph Fiennes, as he’s tasked with organizing and carrying out the selection of a new pope after the current pontiff unexpectedly dies. His fellow cast of Cardinals, including Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, begin drawing battle lines for succession until the all knowing Sister Agnes, played by a stone faced Isabella Rossellini, and an unknown clergyman from Kabul (Carlos Diehz) arrive and place a pall on everyone’s plans.

Reviews

CONCLAVE – Review by Diane Carson

October 18, 2024 Diane Carson College of Cardinals, Conclave, Edward Berger, John Lithgow, ralph fiennes, stanley tucci, Vatican

In director Edward Berger’s Conclave, Roman Catholic cardinals convene to choose a new Pope, a formidable task given the political intrigue and jockeying for power. With everyone sequestered for the duration of the election, the twists and turns keep revealing depths of deceitful, cunning machinations. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, and John Lithgow hold center stage in dynamic, combative performances. Unfolding like an intricate, masterfully played chess match, Cardinal Lawrence guides the proceedings: seeking the truth, reacting to dangerous revelations, fighting for spirituality, and fearing the outcome of the virulent power plays. A taut thriller and a fascinating dramatization of religious duplicity, Conclave is one of this year’s best films.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK March 8, 2024: CABRINI

March 3, 2024March 3, 2024 Jennifer Merin Alejandro Monteverde, betsy bozdech, BOP[OC, Cabrini, Cristiana Dell'Anna, David Morse, Giancarlo Giannini, John Lithgow, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, mother frances xavier cabrini, nell minow, nikki fowler, sainthood, sisters of the sacred heart

The lushly filmed biopic, Cabrini, feels a bit like a callback to earnest mid-19th century movies such as The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Keys of the Kingdom. But that approach works for a story like this: Mother Cabrini was an earnest person doing earnest work, and her dedication to that work shines through in every frame of Christiana Dell’Anna’s performance. That, plus the movie’s still-all-too-timely plea to embrace and support immigrants, gives Cabrini the kind of impact that Mother Cabrini would have been pleased to see.

Reviews

CABRINI – Review by Loren King

February 27, 2024March 2, 2024 Loren King biopic, Cabrini, Cristiana Dell'Anna, David Morse, frances xavier cabrini, Giancarlo Giannini, John Lithgow, Mother Francesca Cabrini, sainthood, sisters of the sacred heart

Director Alejandro Monteverde means to educate and inspire as the film traces the diminutive Italian nun’s journey to New York from Italy in the early 1900s with the intention of establishing charitable missions. Settling with her group of five other nuns and joined by a young prostitute in the notorious Five Points where newly arrived Italians struggle to survive in grotesquely inhumane conditions, Cabrini battles virulent discrimination and indifference to eventually build orphanages and hospitals that will serve the Italian immigrants shunned by the rest of New York.

Reviews

CABRINI – Review by T.J. Callahan

February 27, 2024March 2, 2024 T. J. Callahan biopic, Cabrini, Cristiana Dell'Anna, David Morse, frances xavier cabrini, Giancarlo Giannini, John Lithgow, Mother Francesca Cabrini, sainthood, sisters of the sacred heart

Cabrini is a biopic that dramatically recounts the journey of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. The diminutive dynamo defied odds and the wrath of all the men who tried to stand in her way, including the Pope. She left her homeland of Italy determined to fight discrimination and put a roof over the heads of orphaned immigrant children everywhere. Mother Cabrini was expected to fail because she was a woman, but ended up doing things that, as she said, men could never do.

Reviews

THE OLD MAN – Review by Diane Carson

August 23, 2022August 27, 2022 Diane Carson alia shawkat, Amy Brenneman, Hiam Abbass, jeff bridges, John Lithgow, Jon Watts, The Old Man

The Old Man reinterprets and reinvigorates spy drama. A great mix of distinctive characters pays dividends episode after episode, humor and great repartee alternating with terrifying suspense. Increasingly important as the plot disentangles, the women prompt some disconcerting developments with multiple levels of meaning.

Reviews

THE OLD MAN – Review by Susan Granger

August 8, 2022August 10, 2022 Susan Granger alia shawkat, Amy Brenneman, fx, jeff bridges, Joel Grey, John Lithgow, Jonathan E. Steinberg, Robert Levine, The Old Man

Jeff Bridges delivers one of his most compelling performances in The Old Man, playing Dan Chase, a weary, disillusioned CIA agent who’s been living incognito in Vermont since he went rogue decades ago. He’s a gruff widower, guarded by two ferociously loyal dogs; ever cautious, he communicates with his beloved daughter Emily only by burner phones. When he’s ‘discovered’ and assassins invade his home, Dan goes on the run, picking up a lonely, troubled divorcee, Zoe McDonald (Amy Brenneman), along the way.

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