Although some of the advertising promises for “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” to be the final “Hotel Transylvania” film, such an inducement did not, apparently, convince Adam Sandler to return as the voice of Dracula. Yes, after three entries in the series,… Read More ›
As the end credits roll in writer-director Adam Leon’s new film, “Italian Studies,” the character played by Vanessa Kirby is given the name “Alina Reynolds.” She does go by this name for a little while in the movie, but until… Read More ›
What is it that we expect of a sequel? If characters from one movie return for a second, should what happened to them in the first matter? Can motivations from the original, motivations that put the entire plot of the… Read More ›
Although the assumption was not always correct, once upon a time it was easily believed that if a movie was switched from a theatrical release to VOD, or never given a theatrical date in the first place, it was going… Read More ›
George Costanza famously once said, “it’s not a lie if you believe it.” Paul Verhoeven’s latest movie, “Benedetta,” may not deal with anything quite so mundane as trying to beat a polygraph test on whether or not someone watches “Melrose… Read More ›
Some movies do not tell a single story, they tell two or three or more (or none!). Such movies can often display a sort of hybrid sensibility, more easily swinging between various emotions depending on which story is front and… Read More ›
All too many Christmas movies are infused with a saccharine sweetness – a cloying, fake, forced sense of happiness and joy. Every year there are new entries into this disappointing cadre of works and 2021 is no exception, one only… Read More ›
We have all heard of the horrors of working retail on Black Friday, and some television series, like “Superstore,” have depicted the event. What the Cloud 9 employees did not have to deal with, however, was an alien invasion. That’s… Read More ›
Sometimes a movie’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness (or perhaps vice versa). Directed by Brent Wilson, “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road,” puts the Beach Boys legend front and center and in doing so offers us a glimpse at… Read More ›
Written and directed by Geeta Malik, “India Sweets and Spices” takes a fictionalized look at one wealthy Indian community living in New Jersey. It is a movie that succeeds in being touching and funny and rather cutting. Slightly messy, slightly… Read More ›
As I have said before (as have many others), movies are magic. Movies have the ability to transfer us to a new world, to show us new and amazing things about our world, to offer up stories of heartbreak and… Read More ›
We like to put things in neat little boxes, to label them. This includes movies as categorize such as comedy or drama or action or sci-fi or horror or whatever. Often however, as we all know, attempting to impart such… Read More ›
**editor’s note: This is one of those instances where we will discuss portions of the movie’s climax. It is impossible to talk about the biggest place “Halloween Kills” goes wrong without a discussion of the climax because that is where… Read More ›
At one point in Alexis Gambis’s new film, “Son of Monarchs,” the lead character, Mendel, ghosts his girlfriend. Eventually he reconnects with her and instantly acts very badly over a dinner. Seemingly without explanation, this issue evaporates and the two… Read More ›
One of the most interesting aspects of Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond is the push-and-pull it has offered between the traditional and iconoclastic versions of the character. The delicate balancing act has not always been a successful one for… Read More ›
It is the rare film that can make one both cringe in horror and cry in sympathy while still being utterly, off-the-wall, bonkers. This year’s Palme d’Or winter, “Titane,” is just such a film. Written and directed by Julia Ducournau,… Read More ›
More and more, people complain about hearing movie “spoilers.” The complaint that has gone hand-in-hand with the seemingly ever-increasing presence of massive event movies. Interestingly, audiences are lied to on a regular basis for these movies, with things like trailers… Read More ›
The success of “Dear Evan Hansen” on Broadway makes it exceptionally clear that there is something in the story and the songs and the production (and everything else) that speaks to an audience. It is inarguable. Never having seen the… Read More ›
I don’t know very much about the book publishing world. I cannot attempt to tell you, in any sort of detail (or even broadly), how a book goes from manuscript form to sitting on the shelf at a bookstore and… Read More ›
There are kids who look a good scare as much as some adults, and it is for that crowd that the new Netflix film, “Nightbooks,” is clearly intended. Starring Krysten Ritter as an evil witch and Winslow Fegley and Lidya… Read More ›
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