Yearly Archives: 2018

The dancer and title character is nude, contorting, lithe and athletic when we meet her, bending her body in intense, jerky and breathless movement. “Bobbi Jene” is Bobbi Jene Smith, an Iowan who jumped from Juilliard into one of the … Continue reading →

Folks behind “The In-Betweeners” rounded up fresh (ish) faces for this riff on what going to Bonnaroo, Coachella or Glastonbury is “really” like. Jemaine Clement and Nick Frost play the adults here, so make of that what you will.

The Skate Kitchen are the proud, mouthy young skateboarding women who ignore “Promise me, no more skating,” and Jaden Smith is the photographer  interested in their vibe in this Sundance phenom from the people who made the doc “The Wolfpack.” … Continue reading →

I’ve read a bit about LA’s infamous victory in “The Water Wars” that ensured this parched pueblo would become the megalopolis it is. And of course, I’ve seen “Chinatown” countless times. And I’ve read and watched documentaries about D.W. Griffith, … Continue reading →

They used to be called “disease of the week,” melodramas about some heroine or hero fighting a strange, usually deadly illness filmed and consigned to the weak midweek time-slots of network TV. Not all of them migrated to Lifetime. “Brain … Continue reading →

In sports, they call it a “make good” call. You blow your evaluation of one play, and bend over backwards to find a way to benefit the player/team your previous mistake hurt. It happens in film reviewing, too. When the … Continue reading →

It’s science fiction about a near future where compatibility can be ascertained well in advance, in which synthetic people are showing up on shelves and being taught to act more human.’ Ewan and Lea are the couple whose prototype (James) … Continue reading →

It helps to remember these people were Vikings, once. Get past the whole polite and smiling, tourist-friendly, global-financial-crisis exacerbating blondes taking daily dips in the volcanic hot springs, the almost unpronounceable names, the grey-black landscape of lava usually covered by … Continue reading →

Since achieving leading man status, Chadwick Boseman’s made a couple of decent and dignified if stolid biopics, and a musical one that ventures from pathos to cruelty and all the way to hilarity. He’s collected the big paydays for donning … Continue reading →

They still rot right in front of our eyes. But can anybody remember the last time zombies lurched and lumbered after their victims? Because, you know, they’re supposed to be “The WALKING Dead.” No, they started sprinting years ago, fell … Continue reading →