Monthly Archives: July 2020

Rewatching Christopher Nolan’s break out picture. A guy who loses his memories overnight, and tattoos clues on his person to allow him to pursue and punish his tormentors? Ok. Joey Pants as a weasel who flatters and ingratiates himself and … Continue reading →

There are no “wholly original” stories out there, only fresh variations of all that came before them. Every plot is a version of something dating back to “the classics.” Every character a new wrinkle of classic archetypes. Every novel, play, … Continue reading →

So here I was, eye-strained from all the eye-rolling at the pretty and utterly vapid Italian beach romance “Under the Riccione Sun,” ready to UNLOAD on it with this opening. “If you missed out on how dry and empty American … Continue reading →

Kevin Rafferty’s most acclaimed documentary, “Atomic Cafe,” was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. It was about America’s atomic testing legacy. Harvard educated, a relative of the Bush clan, he made a very entertaining sports … Continue reading →

Writer-director Ash Mayfair made a modest splash with her artful, serenely suspenseful “The Third Wife,”about a child bride’s experiences in 19th century Vietnam, and loosely based on Mayfair’s family’s 19th century history. The 14 year-old bride, May (Nguyen Phuong Tra … Continue reading →

Dame Helen Mirren sits at a desk and begins reading aloud from a book — a diary. The desk is in the room in “The Annex” in Amsterdam, the very room where Anne Frank and her family hid from the … Continue reading →

This August release looks simply amazing. Ambitious, too.

A mystery about who she really is and whose life she is really living emerges in this July 10 release.

About “Desperados,” the played-out sex farce Netflix wants to foist on the unknowing — don’t find yourself annoyed and muttering, as I am. “Damn. I wish I had that 100 minutes back.” You shouldn’t watch it just because SOMEbody thought … Continue reading →

“The Runners” is a low-budget rural Texas riff on child sex trafficking, with a rural Texas take on “how we deal with’em, down in Texas.” It’s a straight-up C-movie that reaches its climax, and then stumbles towards a far bigger … Continue reading →