Actress-filmmaker Radha Blank makes a smart feature film debut with the semi-autobiographical midlife-crisis tale The Forty-Year-Old Version.
Black Panther movie with Chadwick Boseman. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther is the first big-budget release centering on a black superhero – played by Marshall and…
Trouble Is My Business with Brittney Powell. Co-written by actor/voice actor Tom Konkle, who also directed, and Xena: Warrior Princess actress Brittney Powell, Trouble Is My Business is a humorous…
Detroit movie street riot scene: The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow tackles the 1967 Detroit riots in “horribly real” and “deeply self-serving” 2017 release marketed as…
Barry Obama (Devon Terrell) reads Ralph Ellison’s 1952 sociopolitical novel Invisible Man – not to be confused with H.G. Wells’ 1897 sci-fi novel The Invisible Man. Barry & me: Finding…
Don’t Breathe movie: Dylan Minnette is a burglar who discovers the hard way that blind man Stephen Lang is not quite like earlier blind film victims Audrey Hepburn (Wait Until…
Captain America: Civil War: Chris Evans as rogue military leader vs. “Ayn Rand archetype of a self-made man.” ‘Captain America: Civil War’ review: So good it made film critic &…
Trumbo movie: Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren superb as left-wing screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and right-wing gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Trumbo movie review: Highly entertaining ‘history lesson’ toplining an outstanding Bryan…
Room movie with Brie Larson as the character occupying the titular space. ‘Room’ movie review: Easy to appreciate, difficult to like The film Room, adapted by Emma Donoghue from her…
Bread and Butter movie with Bobby Moynihan and Christine Weatherup. Late-life virginity is detrimental to your emotional health. Bread and Butter movie review: Late-life virginity & other social anxieties in…
In Stereo with Micah Hauptman and Beau Garrett: Wit and sarcasm. ‘In Stereo’: Witty & sarcastic romantic comedy In Stereo is a particular kind of romantic comedy – the kind full…
‘Teacher of the Year’ movie features Keegan-Michael Key. ‘Teacher of the Year’ movie: Smart and funny socially conscious comedy Teacher of the Year manages to pull off one of the…
Mad Max: Fury Road poster with The Dark Knight Rises’ Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ review: ‘A good movie on its own terms’ Mad Max, the first…
Whiplash movie with J.K. Simmons. ‘Whiplash’ movie review: ‘Emotionally explosive film’ Damien Chazelle, writer and director of Whiplash, his 2014 Sundance Film Festival-winning second feature, is himself a musical prodigy…
Love Is Strange with John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. Love Is Strange movie review: Gay romantic drama ‘beautiful in every way’ Love Is Strange is beautiful in every way that…
Boyhood movie with Ellar Coltrane. ‘Boyhood’ movie: Richard Linklater has created ‘conceptually brilliant new film’ Director Richard Linklater once said, “The most unique property of cinema is how it lets…
Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise. ‘Edge of Tomorrow’: Tom Cruise, the Last Movie Star, makes latest alien invasion movie ‘exceptionally entertaining’ Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s popular illustrated novel All You Need…
Nymphomaniac: Volume II with Charlotte Gainsbourg sandwiched between Papou and Kookie Ryan. ‘Nymphomaniac: Volume II’: More interesting, more provocative, and more philosophical than its predecessor (See ‘Nymphomaniac: Vol. I‘ Review:…
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I with Stacy Martin. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I review: Lars von Trier offers his latest ‘little nugget of genius’ It will be noted long after this review is filed…
Captain Phillips movie with Mahat M. Ali, Tom Hanks, and Faysal Ahmed. ‘Captain Phillips’ movie: ‘Incomplete’ and ‘less than completely satisfying’ In Paul Greengrass’ thriller starring Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips, the…
Blue Jasmine with Cate Blanchett. Blue Jasmine movie review: Woody Allen is pissed Years ago, the venerable and prolific writer-director and comedian Woody Allen was quick to remind people that…
Only God Forgives: Ryan Gosling stars in Nicolas Winding Refn’s “darkest” film. ‘Only God Forgives’: Ryan Gosling stars in Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘darkest and most oblique’ film In Nicolas Winding…
‘The East’ movie with Brit Marling. ‘The East’ movie: Thriller marred by unbridled earnestness The East is a didactic polemic couched in a mediocre thriller that takes itself far too…
Sugar Mama sex tourism depicted in Ulrich Seidl’s ‘remarkable’ Paradise: Love (image: Margarete Tiesel, Peter Kazungu in Paradise: Love) Sugar Mama sex tourism is the subject of Paradise: Love /…
Mud movie with Matthew McConaughey. Nothing ordinary about Jeff Nichols’ ‘Mud’ movie Ostensibly, writer-director Jeff Nichols’ Mud is about the titular character, played by Matthew McConaughey, who’s on the run from…
Christian movies: Starring Nicolas Cage, the widely panned 2014 apocalyptic thriller Left Behind was a box office bomb – unlike (relatively) recent popular “faith movies” such as Heaven Is for…
Chi-Raq movie with Teyonah Parris: Spike Lee has set Lysistrata amidst Chicago’s urban warfare. Chiraq (one word) stands for the Chicago-Iraq combo. Chi-Raq movie review: Ancient Greek comedy in 21st-century…
Lord Montagu documentary. ‘Lord Montagu’ documentary: Anti-gay witch hunt victim became successful entrepreneur and National Motor Museum founder On first blush, the life of a Lord of the Realm, a…
Selma movie with David Oyelowo as Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. ‘Selma’ movie review: Politically salient in the early 21st century The title of director Ava DuVernay’s historical…
Jersey Boys with John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli of The Four Seasons. ‘Jersey Boys’ movie review: Great music fails to save Clint Eastwood-directed film version of the 2005 Broadway…
The Lunchbox with Nimrat Kaur. The Lunchbox movie: ‘Exceptional film’ that deserved an Oscar nomination The Lunchbox / Dabba was not the Film Federation of India’s submission to the 2014…
Un Flic with Alain Delon. Un Flic: Jean-Pierre Melville’s ‘late noir classic’ Jean-Pierre Melville’s last film, Un Flic / A Cop (1972), is a late noir classic that features all…
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