Monthly Archives: July 2020

They don’t carry around that California fear of “The Big One” in Japan. Earthquakes have always been a fact of life, and what we see on the news and from experts there shows a resolve, an ability to live with … Continue reading →

Wide-eyed Lucy Hale takes her shot at a rom-com wrapped in a sex farce with “A Nice Girl Like You,” whose title gives away the game, and its central failing. The “Pretty Little Liars” pixie, most recently seen in the … Continue reading →

World War II GIs are sent to hold a remote French chateau, and confront the ghosts of those the Nazis murdered there — and maybe a few demons of their own — in “Ghosts of War.” The temptation is strong … Continue reading →

The South African novelist J.M Coetzee adapted his own allegorical novel for Colombian director Ciro Guerra. Not a bad cast — Robert Pattinson, Johnny Depp, Greta Scacchi, Gana Bayarsaikhan and Mark Rylance. Look for this one Aug 7.   

Art, love, travel and mourning find their way into “The Sunlit Night,” a star vehicle that gives Jenny Slate her best showcase since “The Obvious Child.” This indie film, stuffed with a colorful supporting cast that includes Gillian Anderson, Zach … Continue reading →

Perhaps it took a humorless, career-crippling George Clooney TV version of Joseph Heller’s novel to make us better appreciate Mike Nichols’ daring, infamously-expensive version of “Catch-22.” Released at the height of the Vietnam War, suffering in comparison to Robert Altman’s … Continue reading →

Immerse yourself in any country’s native cinema and you quickly pick up on the same range of quality that everyone, from Hollywood to Pinewood, Bollywood to Nollywood shares. There’s good, there’s bad, and there’s ugly. “Maria” is a superficially slick … Continue reading →

This “free wheeling” bio pic, a breezy 96 minutes in length, and has features Kyle McLachlan as Thomas Edison and also stars Eve Hewson and (as Westinghouse) jim Gaffigan. It cost almost nothing and comes from the director of “Cymbeline” … Continue reading →

As the title character in “Benjamin,” Colin Morgan is chatty, insecure, painfully awkward, and thanks at least in part to his Irish accent, adorably twee. Your instinct is to sidle up to him, give him a little “Could we talk … Continue reading →

An Irishman beat Bram Stoker to the whole fangs, bites, stake-in-the-heart business way back in the golden age of “vampire fiction.” Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” came to print a quarter century before “Dracula.” It’s been turned into an opera, comics, … Continue reading →