2020 in Review: Best Narrative Films of the Year
Call me old fashioned, but I’m a firm believer in not posting a Best of the Year list until the year is actually over. I’m often able to squeeze in […]
2020 in Review: Best Documentary Films of the Year
As I’ve said before, the reason I separate documentaries into their own Best of the Year list is not because I feel they should be judged any differently than feature […]
Review: Promising Young Woman Channels Fury and Frustration into a Bold and Sharp Revenge Thriller
This time last year, I was writing about the film that ultimately landed at the top of my Best Films of 2019 list: Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. In Gerwig’s capable […]
Review: Without Much to Motivate It or Inspire Us, Wonder Woman 1984 Ultimately Disappoints
There are so many reasons the long-awaited sequel to the groundbreaking Wonder Woman is genuinely bad that I need to start by simply listing them: writing, editing, acting, directing, logic, […]
Review: One Night in Miami Follows the Conversations, Hopes and Frustrations of Four Great Men
The part that we know is fact is that in February 1964, shortly after underdog Cassius Clay defeated heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in Miami (considered one of the greatest upsets […]
Review: News of the World Stars Tom Hanks in a Story of Finding One’s Way Home
Set five years after the conclusion of the Civil War, News of the World (based on the Paulette Jiles novel) tracks the very particular journey of Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd […]
Review: As Filmmaker and Star, George Clooney Creates a Universe in Peril in The Midnight Sky
Marking his seventh feature as a director, George Clooney enters what I would consider his first foray into genre filmmaking with The Midnight Sky, based on author Lily Brooks-Dalton’s Good […]
Review: Sylvie’s Love Is an Epic Mid-Century Love Story Just Shy of Something Magical
Written and directed by Eugene Ashe (Homecoming), Sylvie’s Love is beautifully realized mid-century drama about star-crossed lovers in New York City whose destinies are as intertwined as they are seemingly divergent. […]
Review: Pixar Brings Characteristic Wit, Wisdom to Warmhearted, Tender Soul
It’s fair to say that the cinema experience is richer, more impressive, more memorable when it takes place in an actual movie theater (as opposed to from one’s couch), something […]
Review: Mayor Explores the Unique Frustrations, Rewards and Absurdities of Public Service
Just north of Jerusalem in the West Bank is Ramallah, a city of just over 35,000 people and a predominantly Christian community in the middle of disputed Palestinian territory. The […]
Review: Museum Town Is an Insider’s Love Letter to Mass MoCA
The new documentary Museum Town, about the decades-long journey to create a contemporary art museum in northwest rural Massachusetts, boasts in its marketing materials that the film is narrated by Meryl […]
Review: Gerard Butler Stars in Disaster Drama Greenland, Where the End of the World Isn’t All It’s About
Quite often in action films starring Gerard Butler, the action so overshadows anything resembling character development or acting or complex thought that they become big, dumb explosion and punching festivals, […]