Monthly Archives: November 2017

Leave it to a Canadian to find humor in the horrors of the endless strife in perpetually poor Somalia. But Jay Badahur was nothing if not an optimist when he, as aspiring journalist with no training and just “an obsession … Continue reading →

“Foxtrot” is a mordant allegory of military service, generational guilt and the wrenching grief of losing a child, an Israeli drama that could have been dreamed up by Samuel Beckett. A tale told in three acts connected by the dance … Continue reading →

The impersonal, easily-hoaxed nature of our digital existence is lightly sent up in “People You May Know,” a romance set in the age of Google. It’s a Facebook/Snapchat/Twitter zeitgeist film built around “What can we really know about a person … Continue reading →

When I saw the trending headline “Lasseter Takes Leave of Absence Over Missteps,” my first thought was “On no, Disney/Pixar’s pre-releasing testing suggests ‘Coco’ will flop.” And then, of course, the mind runs to how that could be? It’s their … Continue reading →

Everything James Franco has done with his life, his work and his fame up until now reveals its purpose in “The Disaster Artist.” Backing into stardom, passing himself off as a polymath — acting, writing fiction, directing, taking classes here, … Continue reading →

It’s hard to make any movie about newspapering these days without it feeling like a wallow in nostalgia. So with “The Newspaperman,” the new documentary about Ben Bradlee, the iconic editor of The Washington Post, director John Maggio doesn’t even … Continue reading →

If it weren’t for the subtitles, you might be fooled into waiting for the usual Hollywood twists and turns tailored for an American audience. But “In the Fade” is German, a terrorist thriller, courtroom drama and soul-searching plunge into grief, … Continue reading →

Here you go.

Warm in all the most predictable ways, edgy and surprising at times, and always willfully quirky, “Permanent” is an old-fashioned coming-of-age-in-the-hell-of-high-school comedy with a few new twists. It’s about bad hair in a place (suburban Richmond, Va., THE SOUTH) and … Continue reading →

OK, I kid. And what do we say? We kid because we love. I was chatting with a couple of theater managers today about Thursday night’s and Friday pre-sale numbers for “Justice League,” and one said and I quote, “OK, … Continue reading →