Monthly Archives: November 2019

Scary stuff. Horror from Luxemburg? A 2020 release with Udo Kier and an imperiled young woman learning about her troubling history.

A Hollywood starlet is radicalized, with cause, in this biopic. Stewart plays the “Breathless” who found screen immortality overseas, and her cause in African American radical politics in the US. Anthony Mackie, Zazie Beetz, Colm Meaney and Stephen Root also … Continue reading →

“Night Sweats” is a nervy indie thriller that never quite overcomes the malnutrition of its budget. I mean, kudos for casting and shooting it in New York, on the fly, for a just (unconfirmed) $200,000. The story and the most … Continue reading →

No, I’m not the last critic in America to get to see this one. Close. Love Tom. Love Mister Rogers. Bringing tissues.

“Most Likely to Succeed” is an ambitious, smart and affecting documentary that follows four disparate high school over-achievers, kids who collected that title in their respective alma maters, to see how life worked out for them in the decade after … Continue reading →

Yes, we all knew director John Ford was at work, running a photographic unit on the middle of the battle. But deadline.com reminds us it was even more harrowing than the sequences he is depicted in the movie portray. As … Continue reading →

What do the limp holiday romance “Last Christmas” and the potentially romantic thriller “The Good Liar” have in common? Both films are built on revelations that aren’t the “BIG REVEALS” the filmmakers were hoping for. And both hinge on relationships … Continue reading →

Every August, the world’s greatest pickers, strummers and fiddlers of “Old Time” and bluegrass music gather in Galax, Virginia, to compete, perform, jam through the night and drink corn liquor out of Mason jars. It’s called the Old Fiddler’s Convention, … Continue reading →

As weighty as a snowflake, and just as prone to turn to mush at room temperature, “Let It Snow” is a holiday comedy that sits right in Netflix’s wheelhouse. It’s a teen-rom comedy, cast with winning smiles like Odeya Rush, … Continue reading →

“Hate the disease, not the diseased.” That’s a hard message to massage when you’re making a movie about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Movies about “psycho vets” oversimplify the illness and amplify its most dangerous and anti-social symptoms. It’s hard not … Continue reading →