Monthly Archives: September 2018

Kevin Hart giveth and Kevin Hart taketh away in “Night School.” He never seems more generous than when he’s stepping back, taking on the Ice Cube role in “Ride Along,” reacting and playing the straight man for Tiffany Haddish and … Continue reading →

Two striking things stand out about the meticulously realized 19th century in Craig William Macneill’s film, “Lizzie,” about the infamous Lizzie Borden ax murders in Fall River, Massachusetts. One is the surreal quiet that a world before telephones, electronic gadgets … Continue reading →

Great to see Danny T get  a Western. Always good to see Lou Diamond Phillips and Jason Patric on the screen. The actual “stars,” including director Scott Martin, are younger and far less known. Christoph Sanders has TV’s “Last Man … Continue reading →

“55 Steps” almost certainly started life with “Oscar bait” in its pitch. Getting a digital release ahead of theatrical kind of tosses that out the window. Helena Bonham Carter as “we’ve never seen her for,” a mental patient whose test … Continue reading →

Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish co-star in this comedy, and with the way audiences treat comics as if they have expiration dates, there’s no telling how well this will do, even if it’s great. And the trailers aren’t selling that, … Continue reading →

The desperation is palpable, the pitfalls predictable and the road rough in “Roxanne Roxanne,” one rapper’s rise during the early years of New York hip hop. Michael Larnell’s flinty and uplifting film of the early days of Lolita “Roxanne Shanté” … Continue reading →

with With all the emphasis we put on “plot” in the movies, novelty in the setting, situations and obsessions of the characters, it’s a shame when a comedy comes along that can’t make the most of a good one. Record … Continue reading →

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, the Brit-Sri Lankan rapper, designer and filmmaker known M.I.A., is even more fascinating as a person than she is as an artist. Daughter of a leader of the Tamil Tigers, an ethnic Sri Lankan minority that started a civil … Continue reading →

The trailer has hints of “Crossroads,” that Ralph Macchio/Walter Hill classic about looking for a lost Robert Johnson blue classic. This is about that preoccupation of hedonistic hipsters, vinyl collecting. And it looks cute. Opens in Oct.

Vita Sackville-West was upper class, pronounced “kloss,” to the core, a celebrated socialite and successful author. Virginia Woolf was a legend in the making, one of the great writers of the 20th century. Period piece. Torrid gay romance. “Vita & … Continue reading →