Writer/director Michel Franco’s “Sundown” was designed to emit discussion. Neil (Tim Roth) is a wealthy Brit on vacation in Acapulco with his sister and her two kids. About 10 minutes in, we get the film’s juiciest, most shocking moment. This is a truly guilty pleasure section. You not only feel badly about what’s happening — […]
This fifth installment in the “Scream” series is a slasher/horror movie about slasher/horror movies. Its title is simply “Scream”. If you’re wondering why it’s not “Scream 5” or even “5cream”, well, there’s a joke about halfway into the film that answers that question. It’s one of the sharper self-aware moments in a script that’s packed […]
Last year I binged the three “Matrix” movies — one a night for straight three nights. Knowing the fourth was coming (at some point), I needed to get plugged into this world. Some fans like all three films equally (personally, I rank them 1, then 3, then 2). Others see the original “Matrix” as far […]
“Being the Ricardos” is writer/director Aaron Sorkin’s dramatization of one week of production of the iconic TV series, “I Love Lucy”. The episode depicted is “Ethel and Fred Fight”, named on scripts as Season 2 Episode 4. (In reality, “Fred and Ethel Fight” was the 22nd episode of Season 1, filmed in early 1952. While […]
Even with one of the most star-studded casts of the year, director Guillermo Del Toro’s follow-up to his Oscar winning “The Shape of Water” isn’t bound for a similar awards season fate. “Nightmare Alley” plays out as three completely different movies, each running about 45 minutes. So I’m going to do something rare: review and […]
I really wanted to like “Belfast”. But it’s difficult to get past the numerous odd technical elements in writer/director Kenneth Branagh’s ode to his days growing-up in Northern Ireland in the late ’60s. The film opens with a contemporary shot of Belfast, in color. Then the flashback saga begins and the chroma shifts to black […]
Edgar Wright is a director known for breaking the genre conventions of comedy, romance, action, thriller and even “end of the world” films. This time he twists-up the “coming of age” story AND horror with “Last Night in Soho”. Thomasin McKenzie had her breakthrough moment opposite Ben Foster in 2018’s “Leave No Trace”. She followed […]
Over the past year and a half I’ve screened five new films starring Amanda Seyfried. One of them, “Mank”, earned Seyfried her first Oscar nomination. Her latest picture reinforces her status as one of the most talented actresses working today, even if the material isn’t up to her standards. “A Mouthful of Air” is adapted […]
2021 is truly The Year of the Chef Documentary. We’ve already been served docs on the lives and careers of Wolfgang Puck and the late Anthony Bourdain. Now it’s Julia Child’s turn. Of course, Child was portrayed by Meryl Streep in 2009’s “Julie & Julia”. But that film only showed a portion of who Child […]
“Violet” is the narrative feature film directorial debut of “Family Ties” actress Justine Bateman. She also wrote the screenplay. The story centers around a mid-level, female Hollywood film executive in who’s yearning to push back against the naysayers in her life, including family members, colleagues and the destructive voice in her own head. The title […]