Yearly Archives: 2018

Steve McQueen is years-removed from “Twelve Years A Slave,” and his latest has less of a social justice subtext than a gender parity one. Liam Neeson and Jon Bernthal are among the husbands whose big money heist goes terribly wrong. … Continue reading →

British martial arts star Scott Adkins ventures into “Get Shorty” territory with “The Debt Collector,” a brute brawler of a B-movie, but a bloody-minded bore. He plays “Frenchy,” owner of a “traditional” martial arts dojo that has him deep in … Continue reading →

A glittering cast adorned in period-perfect Romanov-wear, and parked in sparkling upstate New York locations can’t quite make yet another Chekhov adaptation, yet another version of “The Seagull,” take flight. As a sort of city sophisticates lord it over their … Continue reading →

Swinging London? Close enough, as the music, the fashions and the cars (an Aston Martin DB5!) migrated to the environs of a hapless lad (Brenock O’Connor of “Game of Thrones”) who falls for the right girl and the wrong football … Continue reading →

History seems to be the last refuge of films that challenge children with the ugly realities of life. Cinema for kids has long erred on the side of rubbing the sharp edges off to protect delicate youth and its sensibilities. … Continue reading →

I was going to use the phrase “an authentic American Saint” in describing TV host, child welfare advocate and sensitive ordained minister and TV host Fred Rogers. But in the new documentary about him, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” one … Continue reading →

The great ones suffer for their art — Keaton and Lewis, The Stooges and Wanda Sykes. And nobody suffers more than Johnny Knoxville, still doing enough of his own “Jackass” stunts, at 47, to make you question his durability, his … Continue reading →

Totally down with Jennifer Garner taking back her “Alias/Elektra” action chops, though the set-up for this Vengeance is MOM thriller is an eye roller. Woman loses her family to drive-by punks, takes five years to “train,” and comes back to … Continue reading →

Not the first Fred Rogers documentary, but as it is from the director of “Twenty Feet from Stardom,” it’s the first one with Oscar buzz. An American TV saint gets his documentary due. Really looking forward to this one.

“Hereditary” is a horror film that features ghosts, a Satanic cult, grisly deaths, flies, possession and seances, children imperiled, nightmare sequences, a doubting adult or two and a dog who seems to be the only one to know pretty much … Continue reading →