Monthly Archives: January 2020

One hazard of the “speak your own truth” corner of indie film is the way the filmmaker’s story supplements or even supplants the one being told on the screen. Haitian-American writer-director Numa Perrier (“Queen Sugar”) dipped back into her own … Continue reading →

Last night the Producers Guild best picture award went To “1917.” The signs, starting from the Golden Globe “upset win,” are unmistakable. Best picture favorite, quite probably best director, too. I still think “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” and its … Continue reading →

There’s an implied “Gather round, children” to any appreciation these days for the music of the Woodstock Generation. When credible documentaries about the history of house music and electronica exist, when NWA earns a perfectly respectable and quite popular bio-pic, … Continue reading →

Yeah, people want a break from the grim news filling their TV and handheld depression enhancing device. “Bad Boys 3” is officially a blockbuster — almost doubling its projected $38 million opening weekend. By Monday PM, Americans will have bought … Continue reading →

Last year was top heavy with blockbusters, and a lot of money was made as ticket prices climbed well about $9 nationally. So many 3D and IMAX films, so many franchises. But theater attendance fell 4.6 percent from 2018 to … Continue reading →

All these years later, and Tyler Perry is still making “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” “A Fall from Grace” is his first film made for Netflix, and it’s another female wish-fulfillment fantasy, this one with wrapped in a vengeance … Continue reading →

Not nuts about the first hire on this one. Will Nice Nic Cage return? Probably. #BadBoysForLife screenwriter Chris Bremner will pen the script and Jerry Bruckheimer will return to produce the sequel to the Nicolas Cage classic. via @THR https://t.co/dyWZZ5mgIc … Continue reading →

An interesting premise, a fascinating milieu and a grabby, “Blair Witchy” finale are the big pluses of “Deadcon,” a “trapped in an ancient chatroom” thriller that doesn’t frighten much — until it counts. Lauren Elizabeth, Claudia Sulewski, Keith Machekanyanga and … Continue reading →

Happy 98th Birthday to the one and only Betty White. Love that Ryan. Love that Sandy, too.

So “Underwater” was the final 20th Century Fox film? The studio created by the merger of 20th Century and William Fox’s operation at the birth of the Golden Age of Hollywood is no more. Rupert Murdoch has tainted the “Fox” … Continue reading →