Yearly Archives: 2016

So tall and thin her family nicknamed her “Stringbean,” Mildred’s eyes wear the resignation of generations. And if they’re downcast, looking at the ground, never daring to make eye contact with authority figures or even strangers, that was handed down … Continue reading →

Jodie Foster’s native intelligence and intellectual curiosity  made her seem like the ideal candidate to interact with aliens in “Contact.” Amy Adams’ innate ability to generate instant on-screen empathy makes her just as perfect for such a task in “Arrival,” … Continue reading →

The Devil is in the details, the old saying goes. And that applies to movies as well as the plans we make in life, and how we execute them. “The Monster” is sort of a Son (actually Daughter) of Babadook, … Continue reading →

There’s this almost-forgotten Keanu Reeves movie, a formulaic kids’ sports comedy called “Hardball.” It had the great fortune of being the first lightweight film to arrive in theaters after the tragedy of 9/11, and audiences embraced it because it gave … Continue reading →

Few of us can imagine the awfulness of losing a child in one of America’s ever-growing list of senseless mass shootings at school. And if the parents of Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of 1999’s Columbine High School massacre, … Continue reading →

There’s a lot to be said for movies that use the ever-improving state of the digital art to recreate historical events too expensive to film in the old fashioned way. And the digital Japanese kamikaze planes, submarine and the recreated … Continue reading →

The vast majority of us are so far removed from any common farming past that we idealize it and the people who live that lifestyle. “Peter and the Farm” is a sober reminder of how hard and callous that life … Continue reading →

So this holiday film season will get a nice goosing from “Doctor Strange,” Marvel’s origin story for another character in the Marvel universe, a spare-no-expense dazzler of the eye candy genre. A desultory fall film season desperately needs this to … Continue reading →

“Doctor Strange” is Marvel’s “Avatar,” the “Inception” of comic book adaptations. The effects are that dazzling, the images so trippy, eye-popping and ground-breaking that one is tempted to scrap the normal “credits” for a recitation of the unsung architects of … Continue reading →

Proto-punks Iggy and the Stooges were once and have remained an acquired rock taste, and “Gimme Danger” won’t  change that. Jim Jarmursch’s History of The Stooges won’t convert many. But you will walk away with an appreciation that goes beyond … Continue reading →