Monthly Archives: November 2020

One night, the Latvian newspaper editor and his wife are enjoying Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” where Melanie Vanaga can lose herself in its most famous aria, “Un bel dì vedremo.” The next day, Soviet security police pound on the door of … Continue reading →

Civil War movies have always been a rare thing, so I was surprised to run across “Men Go to Battle” a few years late. It came out the same year as the far more conventional “Field of Lost Shoes,” and … Continue reading →

The idea of multiple universes, multiple realities, multiple “outcomes” to life and our existence gets a sleep-inducing workout in “Expulsion,” a no-budget thriller about scientists who DIY a teeny tiny Haldron Collider in a desert Southwest garage. Indifferently-acted, with funereal … Continue reading →

You never want to “grade on the curve” when it comes to film reviews. But “Love in Dangerous Times” comes as close to earning an exception as anything I’ve come across of late. It’s a no-budget indie romance about loneliness … Continue reading →

A little celebration of Sean as Bond, at AMC and (I think) other cinemas with an eye toward using nostalgia and our affection for Sean Connery, who just died at 90, to lure in patrons. C’mon out. Party like it’s … Continue reading →

“My Summer as a Goth” is a coming-of-age tale with too much black, too much makeup, and synth rock, it’s the “Strike a Pose” or “How I spent my summer vacation” romances. A winning cast, novel “tribal” setting and some … Continue reading →

Sordid, slow and stupid, “True to the Game 2” is a drug-trade sequel to the 2017 thriller about falling in love with a drug dealer and paying the price. An opening scene shoot-out and a trio of coordinated brawls in … Continue reading →

It begins and ends as an elegy, a somber remembrance of past times and personal loss set against a spare, plaintive plucked-guitar score. The story has a seething villain and climaxes in a fine, melodramatic fury. But “Let It Go” … Continue reading →

In the title role of Tatsushi Ohmori‘s “Mother,” Masami Nagasawa gives us one of the great screen monsters of recent memory. Her Akiko Misumi is a Japanese “Mommy Dearest” — cruel, callous, self-absorbed, violent and still enough of a hot … Continue reading →

Today’s assignment, class, is compare-and-contrast “Come Play,” now in theaters, with “Noise in the Middle,” now streaming. They’re both thrillers about haunted children. Their shared hook? Both the kids are autistic. “Come Play” has a name cast and a few … Continue reading →