Hollywood Reviews
Review: MLK/FBI Reminds That Dr. King's Legacy Resonates Now, More Than Ever
Packed to the brim with historical documents and recently declassified materials, Sam Pollard, documentarian and editor of Spike Lee's films, among many others (Mo' Better Blues, 4 Little Girls, Chisholm '72, Venus and Serena), brings us MLK/FBI, a searing indictment...
Now Streaming: WANDAVISION, Trippy Televised Trauma
Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany star in the Marvel series, the first of many planned on the Disney+ streaming service.
Review: ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, A Fateful Night With Four Fated Men
We've all had those 'what famous dead person would you like to have dinner with' or 'what famous people would you love to see having a conversation' moments, when ideas of what we think a famous person is, and how...
Review: WONDER WOMAN 1984, An Underwhelming Sequel
Immortality has its perks no doubt (like, for example, not dying), but apparently it also has its drawbacks, like living among short-lived, physically limited mortals, falling irrevocably in love, and then losing said mortal to accident, disease, or old age....
Review: SOUL, What Everybody Wants
Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey star in the latest animated film from Pixar, directed by Pete Docter, now streaming exclusively on Disney +.
Blu-ray Review: An Entirely Archival Criterion Release of David Cronenberg's CRASH Can't Help But Feel Very 2020
Advice to Torontonians: Don't watch 'Crash' during a pandemic in December
Review: THE MIDNIGHT SKY, Hope at the End of the World
Standing as we are, as we have been for some months (or arguably years), on a precipice of the end of the human race, if not the entire planet on which we live, I assume many of us have thought...
Review: THE CROODS: A NEW AGE, Prehistoric Family Delivers Adventure-Comedy Treats
Living through a seemingly never-ending pandemic and self-quarantining/sheltering-at-home (for some, if unfortunately, not most) puts a premium on escapist pleasures, like an animated Nicolas Cage-headlining a long-delayed sequel, The Croods: A New Age. The first film, a DreamWorks Animation family-oriented...
Blu-ray Review: MOONSTRUCK Waxes on Criterion
When someone today hears that a film stars Cher and Nicholas Cage, their first inclination might be to brace for the world’s most over-the-top burlesque and downright lunar demolition derby. While understandable in light of their outsized personas and bombastic...
Review: THE NEST, Hell Really Is Other Married People
Almost a decade ago, writer-director Sean Durkin’s feature-length debut, Martha Marcy May Marlene — an intense, non-linear psychological thriller — immediately moved him to the front ranks of promising first-time filmmakers. It also introduced Elisabeth Olsen to moviegoers. In the...
Review: FREAKY, Body-Swap Thrills, Gory Kills
Over the last decade plus, writer-director Christopher Landon has quietly crafted a consistently engaging, stealth career as a filmmaker deeply conversant in the tropes, traditions, and conventions of the horror genre and a willing subverter of those tropes, traditions, and...
Blu-Ray Review: Criterion's THE GUNFIGHTER Draws on Western Glory
When did Hollywood’s deconstruction of the American Western myth officially break through? Depending on which aficionado you look to, the answer given may be Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969), or Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952), or another venerated film amid the 1950’s great...
Review: LET HIM GO, Modern Western Delivers More Drama Than Thrills
Pop-culture wise, the Western genre’s relevance has faded over time, but for Kevin Costner, a throwback movie star and Oscar-winning director, it represents a figurative second home, a genre where he can explore, examine and dissect varying iterations of masculinity,...
Review: COME PLAY, A Friend in Need Isn't a Friend Indeed
Azhy Robertson, Gillian Jacobs and John Gallagher Jr. star in a thriller, directed by Jacob Chase.
Review: BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM Ambushes Amazon
Sasha Baron Cohen's most infamous character returns to America in a film that is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Review: THE WITCHES Brews Up a Deep, Surprising Potion
Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci and Anne Hathaway star in a new version of Roald Dahl's fantasy for children, directed by Robert Zemeckis and now streaming on HBO Max.
Review: ONCE UPON A SNOWMAN, Origin Story for Kids
Spinning off from 'Frozen,' the animated tale stars Josh Gad as the inimitable Olaf in a new short film, debuting on Disney Plus.
Review: REBECCA, Latest Adaptation of Du Marnier's Novel Pales in Comparison
Though more than deserving (an understatement, surely), Alfred Hitchcock (North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt) never won an Academy Award for Best Director. But his first American film for uber-producer David O. Selznick, Rebecca, the first...
Review: SYNCHRONIC, The Science of Altered States
The Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead oeuvre has successfully wandered in the fields of science fiction and horror, examining questions of the meaning and purpose of existence, the nature of love, and the concept of time through some serious philosophical discussions and...
Review: HONEST THIEF, Liam in Love, Still an Action Star
Liam Neeson, Kate Welsh, Jeffrey Donovan and Jai Courtney star in a ludicrous yet lovable action picture, directed by Mark Williams, and opening in U.S. theaters.
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