A painter has a show in an art gallery. A drug addict in the middle of an extended binge breaks into said gallery with another man and steals two of the painter’s works. When the thief comes down and is… Read More ›
review
Movie Review: “Scoob!”
There is no specific need for a Stargate to appear in “Scoob!,” the new Scooby-Doo based animated film that’s arrived on VOD today, but it fits into a movie which also incorporates the Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, Dick Dastardly, Simon Cowell,… Read More ›
Movie Review: “How to Build a Girl”
There is something unsettling that takes place throughout the running time of “How to Build a Girl.” The movie, which stars Beanie Feldstein, is full of golden little moments, great bits of humor, and a wonderful lead performance. It is… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Spaceship Earth”
No, “Spaceship Earth” is not a tale of the ride inside the sphere right at the front of EPCOT, and if some of the architecture in Matt Wolf’s documentary looks similar to that of EPCOT’s Future World, it has to… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Becoming”
Watching the new Netflix documentary, “Becoming,” born from Michelle Obama’s memoir of the same name, there is the inescapable feeling that it is, in no small part, a promotional piece. That is, the documentary exists to work in synergistic fashion… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The True History of the Kelly Gang”
There are times during “The True History of the Kelly Gang” where director Justin Kurzel offers up wide shots of Australian wilderness. The shots vary in terms of their visual substance, but the underlying feeling is always the same: the… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Robert the Bruce”
Although Richard Gray’s latest film is called “Robert the Bruce,” the title character, who is played by Angus Macfadyen, isn’t really the lead. Yes, Macfadyen played the role previously in “Braveheart,” and this movie picks up several years after the… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Elephants” (2020)
Disney has been anthropomorphizing elephants for decades so it doesn’t come as a surprise to see them do so again in the new DisneyNature film, “Elephant” (and, yes, animal documentaries regularly anthropomorphize their subjects). Launching this Friday on Disney+ in… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Slay the Dragon”
If the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the Presidency didn’t already make it clear, elections matter; they have very real consequences for individuals within a country. As the new documentary “Slay the Dragon,” out this Friday, makes even more obvious… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Resistance” (2020)
The world feels different at the moment, so this review will, somewhat necessarily, be different. Movies speak to the time in which they are made and the period which they are made about, but they also speak to the time… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Spenser Confidential”
The worst thing about the new Netflix original, “Spenser Confidential,” is that it is a single movie and not a regular series. Sure, Robert B. Parker’s Spenser character already had a television series, “Spenser: For Hire,” but this new team-up… Read More ›
Movie Review: “The Invisible Man” (2020)
Although, as you would suspect, the invisible man in this year’s “The Invisible Man” is largely silent (it’s not scary if he goes around merrily singing show tunes), the movie itself is anything but. Leigh Whannell’s “Gaslight” take on the… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Guns Akimbo”
editor’s note: the below review was written prior to Jason Lei Howden’s horrible actions over the past week. The substance of the review has not been altered following them. The publishing of the review is taking place because while the… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Wendy”
There is a crucial moment in “Wendy,” Benh Zeitlin’s riff on the Peter Pan story, where Wendy (Devin France) and Peter (Yashua Mack) must save the Lost Boys from evil pirates. It is a crucial act and must be done… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Standing Up, Falling Down”
Thank goodness for smaller movies that tell smaller stories. These are the movies that deal with human-sized problems in human-sized fashion. We are all so regularly caught up in big events, big cinema, that these smaller films too often escape… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Emma.” (2020)
The new movie “Emma.,” based on Jane Austen’s novel, is indeed titled “Emma.” with the period. The title, as with so many other things in the movie, is perfect. The use of the punctuation speaks to the fastidiousness of the… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Downhill” (2020)
Inspired by the Swedish film, “Force Majeure,” Nat Faxon and Jim Rash’s “Downhill” is a comedy. Nominally speaking it’s a comedy anyway. In many cases I employ the “in a tragedy everyone dies and not everyone dies in this movie… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Sonic the Hedgehog”
Based on the video game franchise, the new “Sonic the Hedgehog” film manages a truly amazing critical feat – as a whole it hits an absolutely neutral state. That is, the movie has good parts (Ben Schwartz as the voice… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
Some films are beautiful. There is no more clear, more simple, more honest way to describe them than beautiful. Writer-director Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is one such film. This tale of love between a painter, Marianne… Read More ›
Movie Review: “Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn)”
For a, relatively speaking, light and airy movie, “Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn)” sports an exceptionally unwieldy title. It is a title that feels designed to do a lot of heavy lifting for the… Read More ›
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