Monthly Archives: March 2019

Between this and “Pet Sematary,” we’re getting a mini-John Lithgow Renaissance. Blythe Danner always works. A semi-crank survivalist, no doubt stocked up with Glenn Beck bullion, meets a woman broken by the past — grief. Looks lovely. But as “The … Continue reading →

Come for the introduction to Bollywood, stay for the dancing. That’s the selling point of “His Father’s Voice,” a Westernized “Bollywood Lite” treatment of a middling musical melodrama in that distinct Indian style. “Voice” has the basic Bollywood elements — … Continue reading →

The idea is a clever one, and IMDb and Amazon.com aren’t the first to think of it. Put vintage titles that are no longer Netflix draws — films, TV shows etc. — and not exactly “classics” — available on a … Continue reading →

It’s a summer AM in the middle of Pennsylvania Trump country, but Donnie is wearing his fur cap. “It’s my work hat,” he explains, shrugging off the odd attire question. His colleague in the garbage truck, Donna, is just grinding … Continue reading →

The tracking on Tim Burton’s live action remake of “Dumbo” has been all over the place. I have read numbers as low as the mid-20s and and high as $58 million for the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Alice in Wonderland” … Continue reading →

Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see the harsh beauty in something that’s become commonplace, or at least over-familiar. Documentaries such as “The Wild Inside” and “The Wild Horse Redemption,” and endless TV news magazine feature stories … Continue reading →

Michael Winterbottom maintains his rep as Britain’s most peripatetic filmmaker with “The Wedding Guest,” a somewhat conventional kidnapping thriller that leans on some fairly predictable twists to take it from Point A to Point K. It’s another “road” picture, but … Continue reading →

Don’t wait for the phone to ring, “make your own work,” actors are told. Stage a play with a part for you in it, write yourself a star vehicle and find the financing to get it filmed. Veteran character actress … Continue reading →

A beloved Australian tale about a boy, his pelican and preserving and respecting nature earns a sympathetic new telling in “Storm Boy,” which could be called a remake, a reboot and a sequel all at once. Colin Thiele’s novel was … Continue reading →

Gloom and doom hang over Tim Burton’s live-action (ish) remake of “Dumbo,” a classic in the Disney cartoon canon. You knew from the source material and the trailers to this remake that he was going for a sweet, sentimental fable, … Continue reading →