Hollywood Reviews
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.
Now Streaming: THE RIGHT STUFF Charts a Different Path to the Stars
Jake McDorman and Patrick J. Adams lead the cast in a new adaptation of Tom Wolfe's book, now streaming on Disney Plus.
Blu-ray Review: CLAUDINE, Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones Anchor a Social Classic
Director John Berry's 1974 film might improve Criterion's scorecard on canonizing films about Black lives.
Review: THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, Must-Watch Series Rewards Patience
Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Amelie Bea Smith, and Henry Thomas star in director Mike Flanagan's dramatic horror series, now streaming on Netflix.
Blu-ray Review: THE ELEPHANT MAN Criterion Release Stuns
In this crazy industry, it's often someone with at least a semblance of power that can give a filmmaker his or her big break. After all, not all filmmakers come from rich, connected families (though it helps immensely and this...
Blu-ray Review: THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK CLASSICS COLLECTION
The Alfred Hitchcock Classics Collection from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment was released this month in a 4K UHD and Blu-ray combo package, and it's simply stunning. This review is for the Blu-ray discs, as I don't yet have a system that...
Review: UTOPIA, Let Cynics Rejoice
John Cusack, Rainn Wilson and Sasha Lane star in the Americanized series, created by executive producer Gillian Flynn ('Gone Girl'), and streaming soon on Amazon Prime Video.
Now Streaming: THE BLACK CAULDRON, Not Quite Rock Bottom
Directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich, the animated film, now streaming on Disney Plus, finds the studio at a crossroads in the 1980s.
Now on Blu-ray: Criterion Unleashes BRUTE FORCE and THE NAKED CITY
By the mid-1940s, “Film Noir” was thoroughly established stylistically, though not yet by name. Undeniably, there was a prevailing mentality rooted in postwar societal darkness, and it had permeated Hollywood studio filmmaking. The movies’ inherent propensity for light and shadow...
Review: THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME, Post-war Pulp Haunts Compelling Rural Noir
Antonio Campos excels at making damaged or heinous characters front and centre, getting under the skin of a socio-psychopath (Afterschool, 2008 or Simon Killer, 2012) or delving into mental health issues and depression (Christine, 2016), Campos finds entertaining ways to...
Toronto 2020 Review: ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI, A Vibrant and Provocative Debut
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: ENOLA HOLMES, A Feisty Heroine Solves A Fun Mystery
I'm not sure if Sherlock Holmes is the most portrayed literary character in film and television, but it's got to be near the top of the list; a character so popular that you can set many things in the Holmes...
Review: I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS By Charlie Kaufman
In director Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is in the film as himself played by Nicolas Cage. That character puts his own spin on the book in that film when he is tasked with writing a screenplay for it....
Review: AWAY Mixes Melodrama With Space Drama to Mostly Positive Effect
If you took the basic plot from Brian DePalma’s unjustifiably maligned science-fiction epic, Mission to Mars, subtracted the pyramids, aliens, and an ending lifted shamelessly from Close Encounters of the Third Kind or even E.T.; The Extraterrestrial, but kept the...
70s Rewind: PAPILLON, Steve McQueen Yearns to Be Free
Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman star in director Franklin J. Schaffner's adaptation of Henri Charrière's bestselling book.
