Review: Charming Feast of the Seven Fishes Isn’t Quite a Classic
If you’re making an independent film, the chances of it also being a Christmas movie are probably fairly slim. Filmmaking is hard enough as it is; only the truly bold […]
Review: In The Kingmaker, Politics, Glamour, Corruption and the Woman at the Center of It All
Filmmaker Lauren Greenfield is used to working with subjects of a certain scale. Her 2012 documentary Queen of Versailles chronicles the building of what would be the country’s largest residential […]
Review: 1952’s Vibrant Moulin Rouge Still Thrills Today
While I certainly have many wonderful things to say about Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 musical extravaganza of the same name, my heart will always belong to director/co-writer John Huston’s 1952 version […]
Review: World War II Battle on a Cinematic Scale in Midway
One thing you can always count on from the films of director Roland Emmerich is scale. Sure, there will also likely be explosions and a giant cast, but the man […]
Review: Stuffed Breathes Life into the Art and Science of Taxidermy
I sometimes wonder if, at some point down the road, we’ll run out of subjects on which to make documentaries. Surely, somewhere along the line, we’ll have made a film […]
Review: Real-Life Scandal Drives Gripping, Devastating By the Grace of God
If the idea of yet another film about the devastatingly rampant child sex abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic church sounds about as enticing as a root canal, consider the fact […]
Review: Last Christmas Wraps a Predictable Romcom Up in Festive Ribbons and Bows
I don’t expect much out of my holiday movies. A bit of cheer, a bit of romance, maybe a nice little cry (happy tears!) just before the credits roll. In […]
Review: Playing With Fire Never Sparks Much of Anything at All
Less than a week before seeing this oppressively PG-rated kids’ movie, I was fortunate enough to catch actor John Leguizamo performing his latest one-man show in Chicago, in which he […]
Review: Decades Later, Doctor Sleep—a Sequel to The Shining—Delivers a Tense Psychic Thriller
A huge portion of this film cannot and should not be discussed in any review, but I’m guessing it will be, and in large quantities. I’m also guessing that different […]
Review: Martin Scorsese Mines Familiar Mafia Ground for a New Gem in The Irishman
Part reunion, part continuation, and part something new and unexpected from arguably the greatest American filmmaker working today, Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is a sprawling, decades-spanning, true-life tale of organized […]
Review: Despite a Strong Performance, Harriet Isn’t The Biopic Tubman Deserves
Cynthia Erivo is best known for her Tony-winning stage performances; I still queue up this performance (watch until the end) when I’m in need of a bit of inspiration—I can’t […]
Review: Latest Action-Packed Terminator Installment Could Be the Start of Something Interesting
In what was designed to be a direct sequel to James Cameron’s marvelous one-two punch of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator: Dark Fate brings Cameron back into […]