In the new film from director Marielle Heller (whose Can You Ever Forgive Me? was a sleeper last year), Matthew Rhys stars as Lloyd, an Esquire Magazine writer assigned to cover Fred Rogers (played by Tom Hanks). Lloyd’s volatile relationship with his father (played by Chris Cooper, in a vivid turn) has made him a […]
Film Critique
‘Frozen II’ New Movie Review: The songs are duds
If you’re 12 years old or younger, then you’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Frozen II. Of course, that doesn’t mean adults won’t show up, too: I sat in a packed theater on opening day, visibly the only solo grown-up in a sea of kids and their parents. Yes, I have a little girl […]
‘Charlie’s Angel’s’ New Movie Review: It has an identity crisis
Back when Gerald Ford was president and people drank something out of a carton called Tang, there was once a TV series called “Charlie’s Angels.” It entailed the adventures of three gorgeous agents, played by Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson, and Jaclyn Smith, who fought crime and answered to a mysterious benefactor named Charlie (voiced by […]
‘Doctor Sleep’ New Movie Review: It may be divisive among “shine-hards,” but it’s an impressive film
Danny Torrance, the little boy from The Shining, is a grown man (and now played by Ewan McGregor). Like his father, Danny is an alcoholic with a frightening temper. A harrowing mistake leads him adrift from one state to another, though Danny can neither outrun his past nor his psychic ability to “shine.” He meets […]
‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ New Movie Review: James Cameron, the Governator, and Sarah Connor are back!
At the start of Terminator: Dark Fate, old and new come crashing together. The former comes in familiar doses of clips, both vintage (we once again get Linda Hamilton’s terrifying monologue about the end of the world) and reconfigured (a beach provides a Normandy-like robot invasion). The latter is served in a startling introductory scene, […]
‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ New Movie Review: Never make a sequel to a comedy classic
The last time we were in Zombieland, it was a decade ago and our group of heroes had survived a massive zombie attack in an amusement park. Now, the gun-toting, Twinkie-loving Tallahassee (played by Woody Harrelson), brainy and neurotic Columbus (played by Jesse Eisenberg), stern Wichita (played by Emma Stone), and fed-up Little Rock (played […]
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil New Movie Review – Another unjustified sequel
I don’t see movies more than once in the theater and usually avoid repeat viewings of the films I like for a few years. I do this because I want the repeat experiences to feel fresh and also, I see so many movies that I don’t really have the time to watch the same ones […]
‘Gemini Man’ New Movie Review: Will Smith and cutting edge CGI can’t save this script
In the mid-’90s there were two high concept screenplays that were much discussed and in demand to be made within the Hollywood studio system. One was called “The Ticking Man,” set in the near future, about a man who wakes up, finds a bomb has been surgically planted in his chest, and has one hour […]
‘Joker’ New Movie Review: It succeeds at stacking cringe-worthy scenes
Finally, someone at Warner Brothers realized that if you release a stand-alone movie about the Joker, you’re bound to make piles of money. The trouble is, they entrusted the story of Batman’s greatest nemesis with Todd Phillips, the director of Due Date, whose love of ‘70s movies (and mean-spirited material in general) gets the better […]
‘Alien’ Movie Review: Still a masterpiece, ‘Alien’ returns to theaters for three days in October
The “jump scare” is a well established trope of horror films, in which the “shriek chord” on the soundtrack suddenly rises, in order to give audiences a jolt. Lazy horror films aggressively use the “shriek chord” but aren’t fooling anyone. If a filmmaker needs the equivalent of someone screaming in my ear to induce fear, […]
‘Ad Astra’ New Movie Review: The film is engrossing, but asks challenging questions
Director James Gray’s Ad Astra takes place in “The Near Future” and stars Brad Pitt as Roy McBride, a celebrated astronaut of notable lineage – Clifford, his late father (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is a cosmonaut of legendary status. McBride is working on the International Space Station when a cosmic freak occurrence, referred to […]
Lean, No-Nonsense, and Brutal – “Rambo: Last Blood” delivers
After John Rambo (played by Sylvester Stallone) saved a group of missionaries and murdered most of the bad guys in Burma, he settled down, found a home with a mailbox bearing his last name, and embraced normal life. At least, that was the conclusion of Rambo, the 2008 installment which belatedly caught us up with […]
It Chapter Two: Pennywise returns, and the grown-up losers of Derry are back to stop It
Following the enormous financial and artistic success of It (2017), returning director Andy Muschietti had a real monster to contend with: how to top the first film and shape what needed to be the horror genre equivalent of The Godfather: Part II. To the credit of the filmmakers and actors, this ambitious sequel gets halfway […]
2019 Fall Movie Preview: After the summer, we deserve this
The fall movie season isn’t unlike the summer run before it. Yet, everything is looking better (and after Godzilla: King of the Monsters, we all deserve better). Although there are more sequels, at least they’re for movies we really want sequels to, like Zombieland, and not the likes of The Angry Birds Movie 2. Some […]
Summer Movie Roundup 2019: Farewell to the worst summer movie season in years
Grown-ups rule and kids drool. This is the conclusion I’ve come to after four months of one of the worst summer movie seasons in years. Movies made for young, out-of-school, spectacle-loving audiences are a highlight of my year but not when the formula has become this stale. A tub of popcorn shouldn’t be the best […]
‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ New Movie Review: It’s like ‘Rain Man’ on moonshine
Somewhere between the title and the impossibly cutesy-looking trailer, The Peanut Butter Falcon seemed totally miss-able. The whole thing sounded like one of those pre-packaged Fox Searchlight movies that flaunts independent film street cred while touting an all-star cast that most little films could never dream of affording, in a premise that seems ready for […]