Monthly Archives: September 2017

Ok, that’s a mean headline, and this IS a Noah Baumbach film. And with that cast, it could be funny. Netflix aims considerably higher in its “Let’s Be in the Adam Sandler Business” strategy with “The Meyerwitz Stories.” Not really … Continue reading →

Granted, Owen Wilson’s been in the rear view mirror for a decade, and Ed Helms’ window to stardom was a pretty narrow one. But Glenn Close as a randy mom from “the ’70s, man,” and Christopher Walken, Ving Rhames, J.K. … Continue reading →

In America, we chart the sea changes in our culture through sport. Seminal figures from Jackie to Fernando, Babe to Althea, signal to us that our world is different or, in some cases, make it different all on their own. … Continue reading →

Another sci-fi best seller — this one by Jeff VanderMeer — earns a big screen treatment, this time courtesy of Alex “Ex Machina” Garland. “Annihilation” gives us an alien entity that doesn’t look like, oh, Klingons or Borg or humans … Continue reading →

“I’m not psychic,” our young narrator reassures us. She’s just a near-savant at guessing numbers, cards, the right slot machine to toss a quarter into. That’s a skill even a tween can use in Reno, Nevada. Maybe she got it … Continue reading →

Gun-fetishizing, catch-phrasing, “Back in Black” set mayhem from a cranky old action star and a torture porn famous director. Yay.

So what has Hollywood shoved down our throats too often and for too long over recent decades? Hit-man movies –as thrillers and comedies. And Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. The aged body builder’s slide into irrelevance probably won’t be halted by a … Continue reading →

The long strange odyssey of Christian Bale’s Oscar-winning/cape wearing career takes another turn with “Hostiles,” a Western of moral ambiguity, dust and violence. Back in the Golden Age of Movies, leading men had benchmark roles. You did your combat film, … Continue reading →

A little “Kinsey,” a hint of “The Whole Wide World,” and the secret history of the character who inspired the year’s biggest box office hit — “Wonder Woman.” And the story of the man, the two women he loved (and … Continue reading →

  “American Made” gives Tom Cruise his “Goodfellas,” and brings Doug “The Bourne Identity” Liman back from the directing wilderness. In Barry Seal, Cruise has a real person to bite into, a drawling, unquestioning, self-delusional anti-hero who parlayed gonzo flying … Continue reading →