Monthly Archives: December 2017

Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” is a lovely but hard-edged romantic fantasy,  a thriller built on a sentimentalized science fiction fan’s memories of the Cold War, the Space Race and “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.” The director … Continue reading →

Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, “It” girl Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac and a mysterious alien “shimmer” that threatens humanity itself. It’s from the people who gave us “Ex Machina.” Smart sci-fi, got to love it. Feb. 23.

You always cut a little slack for trash cinema that knows it’s trash. So props to the folks who made the green screen monstrosity “Beyond Skyline,” a creature-feature sequel to the 2010 aliens-invade-LA thriller “Skyline.” Nobody involved took this fight … Continue reading →

Truth be told, Fox’s beautifully-animated and whimsical take on the tale of Ferdinand the Bull lost me for a bit. OK, for almost an hour. The new “Ferdinand” is still based on the classic Munro Leaf book, is still about … Continue reading →

The perfunctory predictability of “The Force Awakens” is mostly-abandoned for Rian Johnson’s venture into that “galaxy, far far away.” His sentimental sequel, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” starts with laughs and finishes with a somewhat heartfelt flourish. He’s too smart … Continue reading →

Yes, even billionaire moguls who usually just make Oscar bait like to get paid. This is one dazzling bit of VR/inside the game “rebellion” movie eye candy from the guy who all but invented that term. “Ready Player One” is … Continue reading →

Genre pictures are, by definition, less demanding — of the cast, who are playing archetypes, and of the audience, who share their knowledge of the conventions and tropes these films traffic in , with the filmmakers. But because crime thrillers, … Continue reading →

A few winters ago, and a couple of “Star Wars” away, “The Force Awakens” opened. J.J. Abrams’ take on George Lucas’s creation made its billion and got absurdly undiscriminating, fawning praise from a lot of “Let’s get on this bandwagon” … Continue reading →

This Christmas musical (Dec. 20 release) is a screen original, based on the same subject as “Barnum,” but with new relevance and topicality and new tunes. It’s about acceptance and diversity and finding your showbiz tribe and seems especially timely … Continue reading →

We get old, the AARP come-on arrives in the mail, we settle into retirement communities. And old, if not-quite-over-the-hill movie stars make movies about retirement communities. Old directors? They direct them. Thus Ron “Bull Durham” Shelton follows Amy “Clueless” Heckerling, … Continue reading →