Monthly Archives: January 2021

Many movies, animated and otherwise, have been made about the events that inspired Alaska’s famed Iditarod sled dog race. Disney’s “Togo” is far and away the most factual of all the many movies about the 1925 Nome epidemic and “The … Continue reading →

Adding “Alaska” to most any screenplay brings with it the promise of quirky. The place and the people may be ruggedly rural, with more than a few “sourdoughs” believing themselves self-reliant — especially the state’s infamous remote cabin loners. A … Continue reading →

A French family tries to get back to Paris during the US Civil War, a long trek Western, in other words. End of Jan. release from Samuel Goldwyn.

Boy, did we need this one. “Herself” is an uplifting real world drama in classic weeper/wish-fulfillment fantasy clothes, a story of pluck and heart, violence and sadness. And if you ever needed a good cry… The latest film from the … Continue reading →

The sorts of screen comedies that “travel” well — that play well pretty much anywhere — are slapstick and slap-happy, quick with a gag and quick witted. The Spanish farces of Pedro Almodovar are hilarious around the world, for instance. … Continue reading →

They meet in a minor act of gallantry. Both are to pile into a pickup truck that will smuggle them deep into Thailand. One will ride in front, others have to hide, lying flat, in the false bed in the … Continue reading →

Creepy looking horror tale headed our way in Feb.

Murder, pedophilia, blackmail and morbid obesity figure into the plot of “Wade into the Water,” an odd and intriguing debut feature from director Mark Wilson and screenwriter Chris Retts. It’s “Taxi Driver” meets “Napoleon Dynamite” — a quirky, dark mystery-thriller. … Continue reading →

Here’s a charmless little nothing riff on “Sweet Home Alabama” starring nobody you ever heard of and filmed in everybody’s second-favorite Beaufort, the one in South Carolina. “Stars Fell on Alabama” takes its title from a Big Band era ballad, … Continue reading →

A young woman’s flinty, brooding recovery from the devastation of losing a baby is the beating heart of “Pieces of a Woman,” an intimate if somewhat problematic melodrama from the Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó (“White God”) and his frequent collaborator, … Continue reading →