Monthly Archives: October 2019

North American audiences an be forgiven for scanning past this title on Netflix, “Revenge of the Pontianak,” and wondering if the first half of is missing. Shouldn’t it be “Aztek II: Revenge of the Pontiac?” No, nothing to do with … Continue reading →

You can see why Edward Norton held onto the rights to make “Motherless Brooklyn” for years and years before he finally got his chance to film it. It’s his shot at making a “Chinatown,” a film noir about the brute … Continue reading →

The really bad ones you stare at, slack-jacked, like a grisly road accident that so distracts you it’s a wonder you don’t wind up in the ditch yourself. “Eminence Hill” is like that, a Western so ugly, inept and endless … Continue reading →

I interviewed him when one of his “Friday” comedies came out, a grand old man of comedy, even then. John Witherspoon was a comic of the chitlin’ circuit era who found off color laughs in the stoner comedies of the … Continue reading →

If the Chinese government isn’t careful, the world will give Liu Ximei the Nobel Peace Prize. And if there’s one thing the Hollywood and NBA-coddling one-party dictatorship hates, it’s having another version of its greed, incompetence, repression and aggression exposed … Continue reading →

Totally down with putting the fate of mankind in the hands of womankind in the “Terminator” franchise. Giving your movie some immigration debate relevance, a little election debate currency in a workplace where machines are taking away jobs? Savvy. It’s … Continue reading →

This abortive effort to sell the 1970s horror classic to movie fans never made it into theaters. It’s arty and horrific, images popping on the screen that play like Friedkin’s thriller’s greatest scariest hits.

The guard is changing for filmmakers we have treated as “brand names” for years. Which is why the director of the indie horror pic, “It Comes at Night,” sort of “The Quiet Place” only Australian and somewhat less creepy, is … Continue reading →

What’d the ol’ball coach tell us? All the ol’ball coaches? “Play through the whistle,” he’d say. “Play through ‘The Last Whistle.’” “The Last Whistle” is a lukewarm Texas melodrama that lets your parse that phrase and ethos. Exert yourself to … Continue reading →

The writer director announced his comeback with “First Reformed” in 2017. Now, the man who directed “Cat People” and “Light Sleeper” and “Afliction” and scripted “Taxi Driver” has Oscar Isaac to star in this gambling/vengeance drama. Paul Schrader has a … Continue reading →