Monthly Archives: February 2020

“The Night Clerk” is a murder mystery with a killer premise. A man with Asperger’s witnesses a killing. The movies and TV, which have treated this as a “Malady of the Month” for a few years now, teach us what … Continue reading →

This bad boy comes our way Mar. 17 — streaming, VOD.  

Did you swoon over Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” his lyrical but meandering two hour and 15 minute recreation of his middle class Mexico City upbringing, as seen mostly through the eyes of his indigenous nanny? The black and white memoir won … Continue reading →

It isn’t just funeral homes that get caught ripping off the grieving. Cemeteries do it, too.

“Miss Virginia” is a thinly-scripted, flatly-directed feel-good movie about mothers organizing to do better for their children than Washington, D.C.’s school system. “Inspired by a true story,” it recounts the way a working class Washington mother figures out that the … Continue reading →

Bikers take over town to rob the bank. Marshal Guy Pearce isn’t having it.

Didn’t Oprah have a hand pumping this pseudo scientific wish fulfillment fantasy nonsense? The book came out during a particularly goofy period in American gullability, back when that con man “psychic” had a syndicated TV show. Katie Holmes and Josh … Continue reading →

Disney no doubt appreciated the “Lion King Remake” ethos behind newly-purchased 20th Century Studios’ (formerly Fox) take on “The Call of the Wild.” It’s a story starring a dog, and for the first time in a century of films of … Continue reading →

The Italian mob thriller “The Traitor (Il traditore)” is more time than most of us would ever care to spend in an Italian courtroom. It’s not all adversarial court testimony, bickering mafiosi waving their hands and insulting each other, sometimes … Continue reading →

Spike Lee’s next picture is to be a “Vietnam War” drama, but with a twist.  It’ll be more of a “Last Full Measure” variety, veterans remembering their service, looking for the remains of a fallen comrade. And in“Da Five Bloods,”they’ll … Continue reading →