Monthly Archives: August 2020

When you name your junky-abducted-by-aliens genre movie “Fried Barry,” you set up certain expectations. When your opening scene is an early ’60s looking “official warning viewers of what is coming, that it’s “classified” as “18,” and all manner of violence, … Continue reading →

Thrillers by their very nature string you along. The good ones invite you to second-guess the heroine or hero, put yourself in that person’s shoes, collect your wits and think your way out of a life-or-death jam. And the not-as-good … Continue reading →

Drive carefully, kids. This Alexandra Shipp/Famke Janssen vehicle (pardon) opens Aug 14.

True confession. I didn’t get a thing from actress Romina Paul’s sleep-inducing docudrama/memoir “Again Once Again.” Nothing. A post-partum depression essay on the stages of life, family history and cultural history, “De nuevo otra vez” is basically a series of … Continue reading →

Sept. 3, Disney furthers it’s transition out of theatrical releases as it launches the delayed live action “Mulan” as a VOD streaming “extra” on Disney Plus. You subscribe to the service for $6.99, and for another $30 bucks you can … Continue reading →

“Latte and the Magic Waterstone” is an animated adventure for the very young, a tale with all the narrative complexity of an “Ice Age,” CG animated at a Nickelodeon level. It’s European, a Flemish production, something you can tell just … Continue reading →

“How to Fake a War” is the “In the Loop” meets “Absolutely Fabulous” of “fake news” comedies. For those who don’t get the references, that means it throws amoral, self-absorbed public relations people at a “We need a war” scenario, … Continue reading →

Chelsea Peretti plays a cynically bemused and “mouthy caterer having no luck planning a wedding of her own in “Spinster,” a dry but whimsical Canadian comedy about involuntary singlehood. Peretti, of TV’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” plays Gaby, a Nova Scotian we … Continue reading →

A late August release, a ’70s Aussie feminist icon brought back to life. Hey, we had the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs biopic, why not Helen?

You pick up on a big drawback to the Seth Rogen comedy “An American Pickle” the first time he shows up in two guises on the screen. Here’s a movie that abandons most everything that makes Rogen special in its … Continue reading →