Yearly Archives: 2016

Laika is not an animation studio to coddle and over-protect children. The studio that scared kids and challenged younger viewers with “PAraNorman” and “Coraline” gets back to what it does best with “Kubo and the Two Strings,” an imaginative, scary … Continue reading →

  It seems like only yesterday — OK, it doesn’t, because really it was 2001 — that the video game creators of “Final Fantasy” sought to put their vision of their universe and their “story” in a big screen movie. … Continue reading →

The art of the “Karma’s a bitch, bro” letter has seemed a lost one, and this “FU” kiss-off from Gracie Law  to Warner Brothers CEO Kevin Tsujihara is notable only for its rarity. She was laid off during the bloodletting … Continue reading →

It all goes back to the Wit and Wisdom of Spock — classic Spock. Whatever each and every one of us does to “stretch,” to “get out of our comfort zones,” there’s a lot to be said for doing that … Continue reading →

Oh, to be a defense contractor in a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away. To be a Lockheed Martin or Halliburton with some sort of Emperor/Imperial Senate “no bid contract” arrangement. Because all those rubes want is … Continue reading →

  The new trailer to this Christmas’s new “Star Wars Story,” “Rogue One,” gives us a tantalizing international (and Oscar winning) cast, with flickers of Forest Whitaker, Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Diego Luna and others. The tone is straight “Heart … Continue reading →

Hirokazu Koreeda‘s “Our Little Sister” is a subtle, almost painfully slight character study about three young women whose opinions of their parents are enriched and polished when, after their wayward father dies, they take in a half-sister they never knew. Koreeda … Continue reading →

I won’t go so far as to call this the most disappointing summer for cinema in decades, but I think you could make the case for that. “Dismal”? Almost. “Desultory”? Most certainly. If you didn’t wet your nappies over “Captain … Continue reading →

The animation sparkles and delights in its detail, caricatures and computer-generated colors and craft. The setting is novel and seriously silly — a supermarket, where the food and household items can only live their lives — out in the open, … Continue reading →

In all her years of making movies, the one thing the undeniably brilliant Meryl Streep has never attempted is playing dotty — a dope. So now that she’s nearing that certain age, why not try her hand at a sort … Continue reading →