Monthly Archives: May 2016

They didn’t change enough of the show’s format — which had sagged along with Jeremy Clarkson’s jowls and loose-fit jeans — to avoid direct comparison. Chris Evans, sort of the bastard Michael Caine glasses-wearing child of Roddy McDowell and Ron … Continue reading →

“The Phenom” is a sensitive, unconventional baseball tale rendered in the muted tones of dread, a young player’s fear of letting everyone down. It’s about a rookie pitcher (Johnny Simmons) trying and failing to cope with the pressures of a … Continue reading →

A sequel and a franchise finale opened late Thursday. But bad reviews greeted “Alice Through the Looking Glass.” And weak ones are waving in front of “X-Men: Apocalypse.” So will what looked like a blockbuster weekend, on paper, best a … Continue reading →

With her Angry Birds eyebrows and toothpaste advert grin, Emilia Clarke can lay claim to the most animated face this side of Jim Carrey. And she animates it, boy does she work it, in the romantic tragi-comedy “Me Before You.” … Continue reading →

“The Man Who Knew Infinity” is a standard-issue, overcoming-the-odds bio-pic. The hero must rise above poverty, a lack of education, racism and cultural guilt to reach the pinnacle in his field. The twist here is that this time, our hero … Continue reading →

Can you find him? There’s Benjamin Bratt and Amy Ryan and Diane Krueger and John Leguizamo, co-starring with hot-property Bryan C., onetime dentist and Jewish convert Tim Whatley. On “Seinfeld.” “The Infiltrator” looks gritty and ’80s drug trade generic, save … Continue reading →

Personal, first-person documentaries often walk a fine line between illuminating and indulgent. And Vietnam War films, especially documentaries, were a played-out genre twenty years ago. But Soren Sorensen’s “My Father’s Vietnam” manages to be both personal and informative, a memoir … Continue reading →

Oh, Alice, we’re not in Wonderland anymore. Not so much, anyway. That cheeky screenwriter Linda Woolverton (“Maleficent,” “The Lion King”) has stripped all the wonder out of it. And “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” which has precious little to do … Continue reading →

Wit, provocateur, satirist and social gadfly — “I’m famous,” Frank Zappa liked to say, “but most people don’t know what I do.” He made his living as a performer and band-leader of the Mothers of Invention, conjuring up dissonant orchestrations, … Continue reading →

Oscar winner Dianne Wiest and “Selma” star David Oleyowo clash ever-so-quietly around the edges of grief in the short and somber “Five Nights in Maine.” The debut feature of writer-director Maris Curran aims for cryptic, and she gives us only … Continue reading →