Yearly Archives: 2018

Saw this as a preview for “Hotel Artemis” last night and was at least a little intrigued. A Golden Age of Reno/Vegas period piece with Jeff Bridges as a preacher, Chris Hemsworth as someone straight outta Hell, just two of … Continue reading →

So what can we read into this trailer for the upcoming thriller “Siberia,” starring Keanu Reeves? Reeves, like Nic Cage and Cusack and a few others of his generation, is still getting some sort of decent quote. That’s why a … Continue reading →

Bittersweet is such a tricky thing to master in a movie that you cherish it when you find it, even if the movie delivering it is a bit on-the-nose, corny even. But all those traits have become a niche for … Continue reading →

It’s clever, but we’re not talking “Memento” here, plot-wise. It’s droll, even in its violence, but Leigh “Saw” Whannell is no Noel Coward. And even if it’s not a prophetic equal to “2001” or “AI,” it’s vivid and horrific in … Continue reading →

Of all the blood-and-whisky-soaked dystopian thrillers peddled to all the Chinese financiers by all of Hollywood, why on Earth would Oscar winner Jodie Foster return to the big screen with “Hotel Artemis?”  She plays “Nurse,” who runs an underworld hotel-hospital … Continue reading →

Hugo Weaving is the heavy? Sure? You can’t do sci-fi, or rather you shouldn’t, without Hugo W. Very steampunk “Howl’s Moving Castle” YA adaptation with a mostly no-name cast, “Peter Jackson Presents” but does not direct. His Tolkien adapting screenwriters … Continue reading →

No, it’s not the “Serenity” the fanboys and girls want to see. But you’ve got two Oscar winners and two Oscar nominees in this cast, a sultry tropical setting for violence, sex and shark infested waters. So chances are, when … Continue reading →

“Seabiscuit” director Gary Ross takes on a clothes-horse caper comedy and finds the glass slipper doesn’t fit in “Ocean’s 8,” a distaff spin on the “Ocean’s 11” movies. A make-work project for generations of Hollywood women and female fashion celebrities, … Continue reading →

Bradley Cooper directs and co-stars, and Lady Gaga — Remember her? — is the New Judy Garland/Janet Gaynor/Babs Streisand in this latest “A Star is Born.” This trailer has Bradley Cooper ego trip (and you thought GAGA was a diva) … Continue reading →

Great filmmakers remember that cinema is a visual medium, that you never say something with dialogue when you can show it with an image. That’s how Clio Barnard tells the story of “Dark River,” a quiet, tense and beautiful tale … Continue reading →