Monthly Archives: January 2021

Old movie reviewing trick, comparing a movie to a mash-up of two earlier movies. It’s a shortcut, sure. But hey, I’m not too proud to lean on it. The Romanian documentary “Acasă, My Home” is “Beasts of the Southern Wild” … Continue reading →

A North Dakota rancher accused of neglecting his livestock becomes a fictional Big Conspiracy wingnut wet dream in “The Stand at Paxton County,” a nasty little piece of prairie propaganda that no film distributor would touch but Netflix has picked … Continue reading →

The National Archives has most of the papers and all of the tapes recorded in the FBI’s years of surveilling Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. under lock and key, hidden from public view until 2027. So there’s nothing salacious in … Continue reading →

You read enough sloppy Cary Grant biographies, you tend to give up on him as a subject and spend your Golden Age of Hollywood reading time on less controversial icons of the era. But when Oxford University Press puts an … Continue reading →

Adam shows up at a “surprise” birthday party thrown in a bar thrown for him, where no one knows him other that his “best friend.” “I’m your best friend, and I hate you.” At least Kyle (Nore Davis) sets him … Continue reading →

At a key moment in the volcanic-theme-park-erupts thriller “Skyfire,” a young woman and her lover leave behind the Chinese SUV full of scientists and the park owner’s wife to see about the young woman’s grandfather just down the road. Exploding … Continue reading →

Breeding and bloodlines are sources of whimsy and trauma in “Rams,” a winning dramedy set in Australian sheep country. Sam Neill and Michael Caton play loners — feuding brothers Colin and Les — stuck on adjacent ranches, never speaking, bitter … Continue reading →

Soap operatic and silly, patriarchal and patriarchy-bashing, the Indonesian dramedy “100% Halal” plays like a commentary on living a rigidly “Islamic Law” life in 2021. Jastis Arimba begins by sending up traditional marriage and ends with an overwrought confession of … Continue reading →

You’ve been hearing about it for decades, the amateur musicians’ version of various sports “fantasy camps,” but for rock and roll fans. Pay $5000 (at first, now $5499, plus extras), jam and learn from your aged classic rock or metal … Continue reading →

That 2018 Taiwanese film about a cursed hanging rope has a sequel, “The Rope Curse 2,” and a whole lot more plot and ritual, and many many more characters, although a couple are holdovers from the original. Do you need … Continue reading →