Monthly Archives: April 2017

“The Dinner” is anything but ordinary. Four wait staff deliver each course to the table. The maitre d describes each item in minute detail — “olive oil from the Peloponnese…” And the conversation? Also out of the ordinary — cutting, … Continue reading →

Alexander Nevsky was a great hero of medieval Russia. The 13th century Grand Prince of Kiev and fought the Germans and Swedes, paid off the Mongols and was made a Russian Orthodox saint and the focus of a famous Sergei … Continue reading →

“The Blair Witch Project” wasn’t the first “found footage” horror picture, though it has proven to be the most imitated. The latest is “Phoenix Forgotten,” a thriller about — now get this, three young people who set out, with a … Continue reading →

The audience rejection of “Free Fire,” the gonzo guns-and gunplay action comedy from the director of “High Rise,” may represent some tipping point moment for Americans’ attitudes about gun violence and its cavalier treatment on the big screen. Probably not. … Continue reading →

Perhaps the finest accomplishment of those who made “Their Finest” was in getting their World War II “Dunkirk” movie out before the bigger-budgeted, all-star cast “Dunkirk” recreation due out this summer. Because their film, a war-on-the-home-front tale of a plucky … Continue reading →

Bertrand Russell “Bert” Berns was a composer who wrote pop hits and soul classics, from “Hang on Sloopy” and “I Want Candy” to “Here Comes the Night,” “Cry Baby” and “Piece of My Heart.” As a producer, he had a … Continue reading →

It’s one of the most thankless, unsung jobs at any newspaper, and one of the hardest. Obituary writers make value judgments, about whose life and achievements or simple notoriety is worthy of “500, 800 words,” and whose isn’t. And they … Continue reading →

It cleared $100 million on its opening weekend and has no major fresh competition to face on this, its second week of release. So how much of that opening weekend audience will disappear for “The Fate of the Furious?” Box … Continue reading →

“Unforgettable” lets the hated Katherine Heigl stop pretending she was ever going to be “America’s Sweetheart” and wear her resting bitch face with pride. As a filthy-rich ex-wife hellbent on getting her husband and family back, she has the regal … Continue reading →

With all the money Louisiana has poured into film incentives over the past decade and a half, it’s a little shocking that so little cinema has come out of the bayou that gives us a real flavor of the place. … Continue reading →