There is a basic formula for “Rocky” movies and the “Creed” films are very much “Rocky” movies even if they focus on Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis (Michael B. Jordan), with Rocky’s story taking a backseat. Due to this formula, the… Read More ›
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Movie Review: “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”
One of the biggest problems with “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the first of the Harry Potter universe prequel movies, is that it isn’t telling the story it wants the audience to think it’s telling. Or, rather, it is… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Widows”
Steve McQueen’s new film, “Widows,” starts with a whiz-bang opening sequence, cutting between the home life of four thieves and the same thieves on the job. The jumps between the two are purposefully jarring, causing the audience to sit up… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Overlord” (2018)
It is very nearly the plot of a videogame. That sentence isn’t written in some sort of hyperbolic way either – the “Wolfenstein” franchise has spent no small amount of time exploring the various hypothetical things the Nazis could have… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch”
It is clear from the start of the new, animated feature length “Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch,” that the audience is going to get some wonderfully bright, detailed, engaging animation. What is less clear is if the movie will work as… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Outlaw King”
It has been more than 20 years since “Braveheart” hit movie theaters. The film was incredibly well-received and no matter the issues with its star/director, the shadow of “Braveheart” is a long one. Netflix’s new “Outlaw King” picks up after the… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Biopics are not always strictly true, they are not fastidious and precise. Liberties are taken. It is a necessary part of the process that is condensing someone’s life into a two hour movie. I have said this before and it… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Johnny English Strikes Again”
Rowan Atkinson is a comedic genius. He is one of that rare breed who can make people laugh with a look, or a gesture, or a remark. And yet, it is interesting to see him return to the Johnny English… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Hunter Killer”
Movies about the U.S. military tend to fall into two categories: triumphant stories focusing on hardship that is overcome, and tales that focus more on the evils of war and that which comes after. I say “tend to” because every… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Time Trap”
What if the Fountain of Youth was less a fountain with some water that makes one young and more a cave where time just went super slow? Such is the concept of Mark Dennis & Ben Foster’s “Time Trap.” That… Read More ›
New York Film Festival Review: “The Favourite”
Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest film, “The Favourite” screened this past week as the Opening Night film of the 56th New York Film Festival. Written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, the movie is a fictionalized take on a portion of the… Read More ›
New York Film Festival Review: “High Life”
The opening title for Claire Denis’s 2018 New York Film Festival entry appears almost 15 or 20 minutes after the movie starts. It comes up as a series of dead bodies float in space, having been pushed out of… Read More ›
Movie Review: “First Man” (2018)
Damien Chazelle’s “First Man,” has some of the most outstanding cinematic visuals I have seen in a long time. The sequences on the moon, particularly in IMAX, are stunning, but even that doesn’t do them justice. They are completely mesmerizing… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Bad Times at the El Royale”
No one could ever accuse “Bad Times at the El Royale,” a movie I would prefer to call “Bad Times at the the Royal,” of not having a certain style. This is a dark comedy, a noir tale of… well of… Read More ›
New York Film Festival Review: “If Beale Street Could Talk”
One thing was evident at the outset of the New York Film Festival screening of Barry Jenkins’ “If Beale Street Could Talk,” which Jenkins has adapted from James Baldwin’s novel, and that’s the writer/director’s confidence. Everything within this touching tale… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Venom” (2018)
Immediately prior to the climactic sequence of director Ruben Fleischer’s “Venom,” the alien creature who gives the film its title announces to its host, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), that they have zero chance to win the upcoming battle. Do they… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The Hate U Give”
Written by Audrey Wells, based on the novel by Angie Thomas, and directed by George Tillman, Jr., “The Hate U Give” acts like a gut punch. It is a movie that feels as though it perfectly exists in our world,… Read More ›
New York Film Festival Review: “Ash is Purest White”
Following the New York Film Festival screening of Jia Zhang-Ke’s “Ash is Purest White,” I have spent a lot of time contemplating exactly what the title means. There is a discussion in the movie between Qiao (Zhao Tao) and her… Read More ›
New York Film Festival Review: “Long Day’s Journey into Night”
About halfway through the New York Film Festival screening of “A Long Day’s Journey into Night,” I put on my 3D glasses. No, I hadn’t arrived late for the show, the glasses hadn’t fallen off my head, nor did I… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Night School” (2018)
The new Kevin Hart-Tiffany Haddish comedy, “Night School,” is carefully calculated to create laughs, and it succeeds. Laughs are plentiful in the film. But, they are also cheap and unmemorable. More than anything else, “Night School” feels like an amusing,… Read More ›
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