Monthly Archives: October 2019

The story that inspired the Iditarod dogsled race is one of the great pieces of Alaskan lore, a genuine tear jerker about heroic mushers and dogs dashing through a deathly cold winter to deliver diptheria serum to Nome, which was … Continue reading →

Scorsese said Marvel  movies weren’t “cinema,” and he wasn’t wrong. Now Francis Ford Coppola has weighed in with what the tights-wearing “superhero” movies aren’t doing that great movies do. The “Godfather” of “Godfather” movies calls Marvel movies “despicable.” Naah. Doesn’t … Continue reading →

“Spivak” is a hapless indie comedy about the last guy in the world you’d figure would “get the girl.” Yes, Michael Cera’s in it. No, he’s not the “last guy” this time around. It’s a “Swingers” that doesn’t swing. The … Continue reading →

Héctor, who is “Seventeen,” is the troubled loner everybody in his Spanish reform school picks on. The kids — all reprobates, like him — ridicule the way he took the judge’s edict that he use his two years confined there … Continue reading →

Projections had “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” clearing $42 on its opening weekend. A Disney original, or at least sequel to an original, it had branding and all sorts of things going for it. Too violent, mediocre cut-and-paste fantasy script, a … Continue reading →

For his 19th album, “Western Stars,” Hall of Fame rocker Bruce Springsteen turned his working class Americana short-stories-as-songs Southwestern in setting, and made his accompaniment orchestral. And since he wasn’t going to tour to support it, he set out to … Continue reading →

This Warner Brothers concert documentary earns a limited release this month. A rocker goes country? Hey, it worked for Kenny Rogers.

It helps if you’ve seen Alex Winter’s eye-opening/crime-explaining documentary, ” The Panama Papers.” And even that isn’t enough, by itself, to dive into the horrors of this scandal. The corruption runs so deep, the conspiracy is so widespread, that settling … Continue reading →

“The Current War” is a flawed period piece that was caught up in the meltdown of The Weinstein Co. and the grotesqueries of its founder, Harvey Weinstein, who often did to movies what he allegedly did to many women within … Continue reading →

So The Weinstein Co. rounded up an all-star cast for “The Current War,” a piece of history about the DC vs. AC battles of Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the Tesla-Westinghouse (Nicholas Hoult, Michael Shannon) of the late 19th century. Bragging … Continue reading →