Monthly Archives: October 2018

  “Brevity is the soul of wit,” the Immortal Bard wrote. Frederick Wiseman, the grand old man of documentary cinema and founding father of cinema verite, doesn’t go for wit, or brevity. His classic fly-on-the-wall documentaries — “Titicut Follies,” shot … Continue reading →

Filmmaker Frances Causey was born in segregated Greensboro, N.C. in the early ’60s, “where white superiority was never questioned.” But with family in N.C. and Mississippi, with ancestral ties to slavery era Virginia, as an adult she pondered what she and … Continue reading →

“There’s nothing worse than being in a scene in an Academy Award winning film.” That sentiment comes from a Japanese fisherman in the documentary “A Whale of a Tale.” He’s still hunting whales and rounding up dolphins for slaughter years … Continue reading →

“Miss Bala” is a remake of a Mexican film from 2011/12a Mexican film from 2011/12, that one about a beauty queen blackmailed into doing a drug gang’s bidding. This Gina Rodriguez/Anthony Mackie (MY man) remake plays up the playing both … Continue reading →

This May 2019 release has the same cultural minefield to navigate that the Disney Animation one did decades ago. So the first rule for Guy Ritchie to attend to is “Don’t offend, don’t screw it up.” I’d have preferred a … Continue reading →

Very British, this one — bullied lad finds a sword buried in a stone, saves the land from demons and idiots and Brexit. “That’s ridiculous. I’m twelve!” A couple of gags in the trailer suggest this late January kids film … Continue reading →

I’ll confess to having a soft spot for the British comic Rowan Atkinson, and even for his spoof version of a spy “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” Of course, the “Johnny English” films make one wonder if that soft spot … Continue reading →

  It was as ghoulish a trial as you could possibly imagine. Federal and local agents raided a Philadelphia “pill mill” clinic which was sending oxy, Xanax and other prescription drugs out the door and across state lines, and discovered … Continue reading →

We tend to forget, with the fragile, nurturing, demure and ultra-feminine roles she’s played in recent years — with the occasional exception — how scary Nicole Kidman can be when she puts her mind to it. The December release “Destroyer” … Continue reading →

Younger, lower echelon German footballers are turned into teammates and roommates by their team, lovers by their sexual preference. “Mario,” in German with English subtitles, comes to DVD and VOD Oct. 30.