On the heels of the celebrated documentary “RBG” comes this dramatization of the early years of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s legal career. Decades before becoming Supreme Court Justice, Ginsburg was a young wife and mother and an aspiring attorney. From those beginnings to the iconic status she enjoys today, she’s been able to teach and lead generations […]
How far would you go to be with the love of your life? That’s the big question for the two main characters in “Cold War”. This is the latest film from director Pawel Pawlikowski. He helmed 2013’s “Ida”, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film. “Cold War” is 2018’s Academy Award entry from Poland, […]
It’s “Driving Miss Daisy” meets “Hidden Figures” with a touch of “Ray” and a splash of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”. “Green Book” is this year’s quintessential crowd-pleasing, feel-good, inspirational road trip movie that should become a holiday and awards season favorite. Director Peter Farrelly has taken a break from goofy comedies like “Dumb and Dumber” […]
At only 33, director Damien Chazelle already has three great movies on his resume. And they are three very different, distinct films. First was the heart-pounding two-character showdown drama (“Whiplash”). Then came the dynamic, full-blown romantic musical (“La La Land”). His latest is the most “conventional” of the three. Yet, it’s still bold and wildly inventive: a […]
It doesn’t happen often, but I love going into documentaries, especially bio docs, knowing little or nothing about the subject. Aside from a few iconic songs and a couple of other titles, I walked into the theater to see “Bad Reputation” a blank slate. I walked out with an encyclopedic knowledge and appreciation of the […]
It’s the kind of story you hear once or twice a year. Someone is plucked from their everyday life and, overnight, becomes a movie star. Richie Merritt was a 15-year-old Baltimore high school student with no resume – acting or otherwise. On a casting search, director Yann Demange chose Merritt to play the title character […]
“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is the sequel – and prequel – to 2008’s “Mamma Mia!”, the screen adaptation of the Broadway musical phenomenon, based on the iconic Abba songs. “Here We Go Again” is a new, complex and more mature story involving the characters we’ve known, and sung/danced along with for the past […]
Comedian/singer-songwriter Bo Burnham has written and directed his first feature film. It’s not what you’d expect. “Eighth Grade” is a sophisticated, sentimental and surprisingly serious coming-of-age story that focusses on the final week of eighth grade for a quiet, socially awkward 13-year old. Elsie Fisher (the voice of Agnes in the first two “Despicable Me” […]
Marvel Studios has called “Avengers: Infinity War” “the cinematic event of a lifetime.” I’ll be the judge of that. Nearly 10 years to the day after the release of “Iron Man”, the film that started it all, just about everyone who’s part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters come together in “Infinity War”. Their goal? To […]
“Meet the remarkable Emperor Penguin… again.” That is narrator Morgan Freeman’s opening line from “March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step”, the follow-up to 2005’s groundbreaking, Oscar-winning nature documentary. This is a sequel we never knew we needed. I saw the original “March” at a crowded theater during the height of its theatrical run […]