Monthly Archives: June 2018

The word “artisanal” has returned to common use. “Slow food” is totally a thing. Cameras that take pictures on celluloid, music preserved on vinyl discs, “hand-crafted” and “hand-made” are valued now like they haven’t been in years. Might letterpress printing, … Continue reading →

Another action pic about an outsider kid who “finds” a mechanical, superintelligent “friend.” This time, it’s a military robot dog “lost” and then found by our young hero. A kids’ movie released just in time to send kids back to … Continue reading →

From “Luxo Jr.,” the movie that served as a proof-of-concept for Pixar animation, the animation studio has made its bones on shorts. They’re generally dialogue-free, little marvels of visual CGI animated storytelling  — “Geri’s Game,” “Piper,” “For the Birds.” They … Continue reading →

It was “love at first sight,” they remember — particularly English period piece kind of love. They’re both ever so prim and proper, a very young couple mimicking the manners ingrained by generations of observing, or in her case, living … Continue reading →

First of all, “Tag” was never going to be as riotously funny as the trailers. The tale of an “epic” decades-long game of tag, begun in childhood and taken deep into adulthood, a jaw-dropping true story freely adapted to embrace … Continue reading →

There’s a high tone sheen to the new “Superfly,” a gloss of drug-trade affluence that we haven’t seen in a movie since “Scarface.” Designer clothes, fur-trimmed pimpwear, mansions, supercars. exotic firearms and elaborate hairstyles highlight a remake that’s a shiny … Continue reading →

All this “Conjuring/Annabelle universe” stuff. Warner Brothers getting deeper into that Lionsgate/Screen Gems/Summit/Blumhouse horror money is more what this is about. What we’ve got here is your basic haunted convent, with scary ghost nuns. Taissa Farmiga and Demian Bichir are … Continue reading →

Live action, with CGI elephant flying, a remake that relies on generations  of Disney kids growing up weeping to a genuine animated masterpiece. Michael Keaton, Eva Green, Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Oscar winner Alan Arkin, all in the cast of … Continue reading →

“Straight Into a Storm” is a tuneful, affable rockumentary about Providence, Rhode Island rockers Deer Tick, a band that celebrated its tenth anniversary with a rowdy New Year’s Eve show that mimicked many of the hundreds of concerts that preceded … Continue reading →

In “Incredibles 2,” the villain is named “The Screenslaver,” a monster straight out of the American Id, as relevant as each day’s latest panic-stricken headlines. Screenslaver has identified our weakness  — “screens,” that we “don’t talk. You watch talk shows. … Continue reading →