Yearly Archives: 2018

Yet another YA sci-fi dystopia about kids hunted and imprisoned and feared for who they are. Hey, it’s as topical as today’s headlines, right? Even though it’s based on an Alexandra Bracken novel. These kids have special powers, and no … Continue reading →

Chatty, self-absorbed, streetwise and sex obsessed, even if he wasn’t drawing his quintessential “New York types,” we’d call Jules Feiffer’s characters “cartoons.” They’re intellectuals on the pseudo-intellectual end of the scale, funny in biting, verbose flashes of self-realization. As in … Continue reading →

The sleeper boxing hit “Creed” was basically a “Rocky” movie extending Sly Stallone’s franchise into a new, temporally impossible timeline via the son of a fighter who died in 1985. It’s a boxing picture operating on comic book “universe” rules … Continue reading →

Mark Hogancamp is a sometime cook, dishwasher and busboy at a bar in Kingston, New York, a man who lives a strange and rich interior life with dolls. It’s not what you think. Back in 2000, Hogancamp survived a savage … Continue reading →

“Ali’s Wedding” opens with a guy in a tux, fleeing the Aussie cops on a tractor. “Pool the veHICLE ovah!” “Sorry mate, ah’m TRYIN’ t’get to the AIRport!” Ali, our Iraqi-Australian hero, is running from his own wedding. And “Ali’s Wedding” … Continue reading →

Will Patton is the headmaster, Samantha Mathis one of the more intense “teachers” in this horror offering, slated for the cinema’s late August dumping ground (the weekend of abandoned movies). The curious thing about this trailer is the honor it … Continue reading →

Brenton Thwaites is the pretty young reporter haunted by memories of his Afghanistan assignment, a cast of similarly little-knowns as his editor, his fiance. And then there’s the fellow cast as the young reporter’s toughest assignment, “The Man” who claims … Continue reading →

The dull repetition of “Jurassic Park” enjoys yet another dino deja vu outing with “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.” Sure, give them points for shoehorning Jeff Goldblum, the quirky, cautionary Dr. Malcolm, into a couple of scenes warning a clueless Congress … Continue reading →

Eugene Jarecki’s “The King” is a moving masterpiece of music, pop culture montage and Big American Metaphor. Yeah, it’s about Elvis and race and rock’n roll and America at the Trump Moment. And it’s packed with interviews, from Elvis friends … Continue reading →

  Netflix has decided that what the romantic comedy genre needs is another “THIS time I get it RIGHT” fantasy farce, this one starring Adam Devine. “When We First Met” is built around a guy’s grief  over losing Ms. Right, … Continue reading →