Monthly Archives: September 2017

  So the Danish toymaker LEGO just announced massive layoffs because kids aren’t buying enough of their snap-together designer toys. Their latest movie isn’t helping the bottom line all that much. “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” opened to a paltry (for … Continue reading →

“Immortality is only a question of time!” enthuses the good Dr. West (Julio Perillan) in promotional appearances for his company, Prodigy, and its “Lazarus Project.” As this is somewhere in the not-terribly-distant future, the “time” is now. Lazarus is all … Continue reading →

  Back when he made his documentary about the calling, the life and the difficult work that being a stand-up comedian is —“Comedian” — Jerry Seinfeld gave voice, in interviews (with me and others) that his sole ambition, after his wildly successful … Continue reading →

Over the decades, “queer cinema” has largely confined itself to three basic plots. There were dramas about about transgression, furtive love or lust, and persecution for “the love that dare not speak its name.” “Prick Up Your Ears” and most … Continue reading →

In his seven decades as a movie and TV star, Harry Dean Stanton rarely had to carry a picture. Stanton, who died earlier this month at the ripe old age of 91, was a character actor — the consummate supporting … Continue reading →

American romantic comedies that even halfway work are so rare that one which manages a little pathos and maybe five actual belly-laughs should be cut a little slack. Which could be Justin Long’s motto as a leading man. No, that’s … Continue reading →

Ben Stiller gives his most soulful, vulnerable performance ever in his new film, “Brad’s Status.” Writer-director Mike White (“The Good Girl,” “Year of the Dog”) has conjured up a gentle, realistic and melancholy midlife for Stiller to act out, one … Continue reading →

The horror trope that “social media can get you killed” has already led to assorted thrillers with the title “Unfriended,” one of them popular enough to warrant “Unfriended 2.” So that working title for the movie that became “Friend Request” … Continue reading →

It’s always a call for celebration when a major studio puts money and effort behind a picture aimed at an audience over the age of 25. But the second “Murder on the Orient Express” trailer underlines some pretty big questions … Continue reading →

Wes Anderson’s latest is set in a Japan where dogs have been exiled to a garbage island, where a 12 year-old dodges the quarantine in search of his pet. Bryan Cranston is the one voice that stands out in the … Continue reading →