When Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride snuck onto screens late into September of 1987, hardly anyone noticed. School was back in session and, after a summer of testosterone-pumping behemoths like Beverly Hills Cop II, The Untouchables, and RoboCop, there wasn’t much of an audience for Reiner’s hard-to-categorize comedy/fantasy/adventure send-up. Making matters far worse were the […]
SERENITY New Movie Review: Matthew McConaughey’s Worst Movie?
When we meet Baker Dill (played by Matthew McConaughey), he’s drenched in sweat, living alone in a dumpy apartment, and lives to fish. Baker is particularly obsessed with catching a massive tuna he’s nicknamed “Justice,” a crazed fixation that has resulted in daily failed attempts to capture the fish with his patient first mate (played […]
THE FAVOURITE New Movie Review: ‘The Favourite’? Not Quite.
It happens every year. Of the dozens of movies that open between November and January that are touted as “The Year’s Best, Oscar-Bound, and An Instant Classic,” there’s always one in the pack that doesn’t live up to its hype. In fact, it’s usually a film I dislike so passionately, I wonder what on Earth […]
GLASS New Movie Review: The ultimate Shyamalan movie
M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable was a comic book movie ahead of its time. Arriving a year after the monster success of his spooky and deeply moving The Sixth Sense, Shyamalan’s Unbreakable was shrouded in secrecy. No one knew what the film was even about until the day it opened. The initial response was muted, if […]
THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD Movie Review: Don’t miss the Jan. 21 special showing of this ‘stunning’ film
The opening moments of They Shall Not Grow Old provides what you expect from a documentary about World War I; the footage is black and white, soundless and grainy. The aspect ratio is initially so boxy, it’s like looking through a keyhole at the center of the movie screen. Then, we hear the voices of […]
REPLICAS New Movie Review: How a not-good movie with a wacky screenplay won over this film critic
In the near future, scientist Will Foster (played by Keanu Reeves) moves the fading consciousness of a recently deceased man into a robot. When the robot “reawakens” as a skeletal machine with a metallic body, it immediately freaks out and rips its head apart. Clearly, Foster has never seen RoboCop and lacks the bedside manner […]
‘CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?’ New Movie Review: Straightforward filmmaking makes for a compelling and performance-driven actor’s showcase
Lee Israel was a real person, a once-promising writer who turned to forging famous letters in order to pay her bills. More to the point, Israel enjoyed her highly illegal practice of composing letters from famous, deceased authors (like Dorothy Parker), as she was being paid for work that was highly scrutinized and doted after. […]
VICE New Movie Review: This film has the outrage of 2018… but also its lack of nuance
The story of Dick Cheney’s startling political career is the subject of Adam McKay’s Vice, in which Christian Bale stars as the former White House Chief of Staff, Halliburton CEO, and Vice President to George W. Bush. Amy Adams plays his supportive wife, Lynne, while Sam Rockwell portrays George W. Bush; Steve Carell is Donald […]
Best of the Wurst 2018: The top 10 films of the year
A year in the life of a professional movie critic is a lot like marathon: You start slow, build a consistent pace, then give in to a full-on sprint at the very end. It never fails to amuse me how many pilau duds litter the first part of the year (anyone remember the first new […]
GREEN BOOK Bonus Movie Review: A tough and subtle film, one of the year’s surprise sleepers
In the 1960s, Tony Lip, a family man thug (played by Viggo Mortensen), is hired by Dr. Don Shirley, a jazz pianist (played by Mahershala Ali), as his driver for a record company-sponsored tour throughout the deep south. Tony is short-tempered, none-too-bright, and barely conceals his bigotry. While Dr. Shirley is far more educated and […]
FIRSTLIGHT: 20 Years of Barry Rivers’ Special Screenings
In a typical Maui movie year, film buffs get a full course buffet of film choices for the first and second quarter of the year. Our local theaters and Barry Rivers’ beloved Maui Film Festival provide a wide range of films, including locally made indies, a few under-the-radar studio gems, and the onslaught of big […]
THE MULE New Movie Review: It plays like a geriatric take on ‘Breaking Bad’ but is still among Eastwood’s best
In 2014, an elderly man named Leo Sharp was arrested for being a drug mule. Sharp delivered tons of cocaine, driving cross country for a Mexican drug cartel. After doing this for years, he was caught and served jail time. Sharp was a World War II veteran and a celebrated horticulturist. At the time of […]
RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET Movie Review: The endless product placement and cameos represent everything troubling about Disney
At the beginning of Ralph Breaks the Internet, the lovable doofus “Wreck It” Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) and tiny, sugary-voiced Vanellope (voice by Sarah Silverman) are still best friends and enjoying the simplicity of their lives as video game characters. When the steering wheel attached to Vanellope’s “Sugar Rush” breaks, she and Ralph […]
BOY ERASED New Movie Review: Great performances and important subject matter make this a film worth seeing, despite directorial missteps
Joel Edgerton directs and stars in this adaptation of Garrard Conley’s 2016 memoir about the time he spent in gay conversion therapy. Lucas Hedges is “Jared,” a teen whose strict Christian parents (played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman) send him to a gay conversion facility led by the charismatic Victor Sykes (played by Edgerton) […]
FREE SOLO New Movie Review: Watch this film during Kihei’s Indie Film Day on Wednesday – just remember to breathe
A memorable moment in the otherwise much derided Star Trek V: The Final Frontier depicts Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner) free climbing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The scene is very on the nose, not only because Kirk, without any ropes or gear, is climbing the mountain bare-handed (The Captain is climbing […]
‘CREED II’ New Movie Review: The ‘Rocky’ series still has fight left
The first line spoke in Creed II is “You got this.” It’s uttered to Adonis Creed (played by Michael B. Jordan) by his girlfriend, Bianca (played by Tessa Thompson), before a boxing match and the statement pretty much sums up the movie: overly familiar but confident. While Creed is enjoying his sudden fame and a […]
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