Yearly Archives: 2018

“A Simple Favor” is a thriller that ticks likes a Timex, a precision exercise in button-pushing manipulation and a laugh out loud mystery that mocks its own manipulations, giggles at its own far-fetched twists. Paul Feig of “Bridesmaids,” working from … Continue reading →

In his youth, John Lydon, who went by Johnny Rotten back then, was always good for an quote. Point a TV camera at him, as more than one British TV provocateur was given to do, ask him to say something … Continue reading →

Nothing to do with Nirvana, so let’s avoid any “Smells like” wisecracks. This Max Minghella film is about an aspiring pop starlet (Elle), her mentor (Rebecca Hall) and a BIG CONTEST that can make or break her. They’re premiering “Teen … Continue reading →

Regarding the college sex comedy “Frat Star,” it doesn’t really let co-directors Grant Johnson and Ippsie Jones off the hook by saying “They MEANT” to make something appalling. They succeeded, exposing the elitist, sexist and degrading “Greek” system as it … Continue reading →

The evangelist Billy Graham long had a film production company that produced movies with the same aim as his televised “Crusades” — to win converts, or at least reaffirmations of faith from believers. These were simple, modest-budget films with varying … Continue reading →

Shane Black writes the chewiest, funniest tough-guy dialogue in the movies. So having the writer-director of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and “The Nice Guys” in charge of “The Predator” reboot was sure to pay dividends. He’s a born smart-ass, and … Continue reading →

If you ever wondered where the term “Grand Guignol,” used to describe the bloody and macabre, over-the-top-horror, came from, here it is. If you ever speculated who might have been the original “scream queen,” long before Jamie Leigh Curtis, let … Continue reading →

“MDMA” is a lurid, over-sexed, drugged–out soap opera set at the tail end of the Go Go ’80s, when Reagan was King and “Molly” was his Queen. It may pass itself off as “cautionary,” but this is exploitation, the sort … Continue reading →

It’s actor Paul Dano’s feature directing debut, this sensitive coming-of-age-in-crisis drama starring Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Bill Oxenbould as the kid. The wonderful and omnipresent Bill Camp is in “Wildlife” too, which earns limited release Oct. 19.

In Europe, they remember who the Evil Empire is, and why you don’t let them have a say in your elections. This has a fall opening in Europe, coming soon to the US — Thomas Vinterberg (“The Celebration,” “Far from … Continue reading →