For better or worse, Netflix’s new movie, “The Knight Before Christmas” is exactly as advertised. Directed by Monika Mitchell with a screenplay by Cara Russell, this is an extremely low-stakes tale of a single woman in 2019 Ohio falling in… Read More ›
review
Movie Review: “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Watching “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” one inescapable truth came to the fore: I am a cynical human being. Technically I knew this before I sat down to watch this inspired-by-reality tale of Mr. Rogers’ influence on the life… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The Good Liar”
From an early moment in “The Good Liar,” it is quite clear what one of the big twists will be down the line. That made this reviewer rather trepidatious. On the one hand, watching two masters like Ian McKellen and… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The Warrior Queen of Jhansi”
Is “The Warrior Queen of Jhansi,” a new film Swati Bhise a case of printing the legend? This reviewer would never deign to suggest that he knows enough about Indian history to even hazard a guess. What is clear about… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The Lighthouse” (2019)
There is an incredible sense of claustrophobia that immediately makes itself felt with “The Lighthouse.” Director Robert Eggers has opted to create his film in the 1.19:1 aspect ratio as opposed to what we usually see on the big screen… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Ford V Ferrari”
To start at the end, it is the final irony that James Mangold’s new film is titled “Ford V Ferrari” and not “Shelby and Miles V Ford.” This is a movie—a wonderful movie—which is so much less about Ford going… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Terminator: Dark Fate”
There is a moment early on in “Terminator: Dark Fate” where anything seems possible; where it feels like the story truly could head anywhere. It is a false a hope; a lie. “Dark Fate,” the sixth entry in the “Terminator”… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The Kill Team” (2019)
As sometimes the two things are confused, it must be stated that just because the story told in a movie is important, the movie is not automatically a “good” movie. In this case, no one would argue that the tale,… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Zombieland: Double Tap”
It has been 10 years since the first “Zombieland” movie arrived on the big screen and not only have things changed in our world, they’ve changed within that of the franchise’s as well. Yes, the specifics are different what with… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Cyrano, My Love”
Watching the new movie “Cyrano, My Love” it is easy to recall the Oscar-winning “Shakespeare in Love.” After all, the latter is a tale about Shakespeare and his troubles writing “Romeo and Juliet” and the former is a tale about… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Gemini Man”
Writing about “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” I stated, ” The changes to the language of cinema Ang Lee has made with this work are not yet fully understood, nor codified.” I further referred to the movie as “an oddity.” Here… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Little Monsters”
At this point in time, if you’re going to make a zombie movie, you have to do something different with it. You can’t just have zombies attack a small group of holdouts in a shopping mall anymore. We have all… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Joker”
As an origin story, Todd Phillips’ “Joker” tells us exactly how the Clown Prince of Crime came to be (in this universe anyway). Co-written and directed by Phillips, the movie breaks down exactly what drives Joker to commit unparalleled acts… Read More ›
Movie Review: “In the Tall Grass”
It is all too rare that we see a movie not only establish an intriguing premise, but manage to carry the intrigue forward for the full running time. Written and directed by Vincenzo Natali (based on a novella by Stephen… Read More ›
New York Film Festival Review: “The Irishman”
To say that a reunion of Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci has been eagerly anticipated (at least in certain corners) is an understatement. However long it took, the men have come back together, they have added… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Abominable” (2019)
As the credits began to roll there was no small amount of applause at the press screening I attended for “Abominable.” Children in the audience laughed throughout the movie and adults several times as well, so this ought not have… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Judy” (2019)
Who was Judy Garland when she was not on stage? This is the question that Rupert Goold’s new film, written by Tom Edge (based on the play “End of the Rainbow” by Peter Quilter), attempts to answer. By looking at… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Zeroville”
Do you prefer your movies simple and straightforward, or do you like them to operate as some sort of a fever dream, where one is never quite sure what is taking place, nor whether the events are real or imagined? … Read More ›
Movie Review: “Ad Astra”
So often when movies take us into space, it is so that we can watch things blow up real good. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it’s also wonderful to see a movie more in the “2001: … Read More ›
Movie Review: “Downton Abbey”
Taking a television series, particularly a beloved one, to the big screen is an incredibly difficult task. Amongst the myriad of potential problems is the issue of needing to come up with a story worthy of being a movie in theaters… Read More ›