Monthly Archives: April 2018

Jim Carrey as an aged Polish police detective taking one last crack at the sex club murder case no one else could solve? We are…intrigued. This indifferent, exploitive mystery, filmed in 2015, is a Kafkaesque nightmare painted in the grim … Continue reading →

Some movies are so on the nose that you watch them fighting the feeling that you’ve already seen them. But if the dialogue is clever enough and the cast is companionable, they can fit neatly into way most of us … Continue reading →

It can be helpful every now and then to watch a movie out of order. Catch the final act first, then get to the beginning and build-up to that climax later. I caught the last 20 minutes of “Paterno” while … Continue reading →

Deland, Fla., this AM. Yeah, I looked inside. Still have my face. In other words, “empty.”

I mean, check out dude’s SWORD. For Pete’s sake.

So it started life as a series of shorts, for Pepsi? Do I have that right? Anyway, branding being what it is, dressing up basketball stars of today and yesterday in old man makeup as “street ball” legends — Kyrie, … Continue reading →

The chilling isolation of stardom is the stark take-away from “Gemini,” a smart and knowing film noir set in LaLaland. Get famous enough, and you’re trapped. Every public appearance is fraught, every social exchange has you questioning motives. Want somebody … Continue reading →

Even the best thrillers allow or invite the viewer to get a step or two ahead, to anticipate what’s coming next, or what might come. The script usually reveals its mysteries by relying on melodramatic tropes or cliches of the … Continue reading →

Just a teaser, has a touch of Tyler Perry with an all-Asian cast. Gloss and aspirational consumption (check out the cars). Not a laugh in the teaser, but the target audience is underserved, under-represented and HUGE. Maybe it’ll work out. … Continue reading →

One way to elevate the stoner comedy — And who asked for that? — might be to cast against type. Thus “Dude,” an L.A. high school stoner romp about four BFFs coping with senior year, prom, college plans, singing along … Continue reading →