Monthly Archives: April 2021

Simi Liu is the lead but Awkwafina, Michelle geog and Tony Leung are a lot more familiar to Western audiences.

The images are impressive, as you’d expect in any new nature doc about the giants of the sea. But the behaviors observed and revelations about whale “language,” “culture,” knowledge passed-down, generation to generation, expressions of curiosity, “love” and “grief” are … Continue reading →

Staid, stiff and stately history, “Queen Marie,” titled “Queen Marie of Romania” in Europe, plays like a lesser installment of “Masterpiece Theatre,” a reminder that not everything in costume and ripped from the pages of royal history is a “masterpiece.” … Continue reading →

A little Lumberton, N.C. after dark, a little Zoom Q & A with Isabella Rossellini afterwards. Let’s see if I can get “off script” for my introduction. A 35th anniversary showing at the 30th anniversary FFF. Great way to polish … Continue reading →

Morgan Freeman sits in a wheelchair and orders B-movie action queen Ruby Rose around in “Vanquish,” a slow-walking, slow-drawling thriller filled with actors who have no business being in a movie with Freeman, who’s barely in it himself. It’s bad … Continue reading →

No one went to Neon’s doc “Gunda,” to “Minari” or “The Father” either. “Chaos Walking” tripped like every other movie in wide release. All the box office cash went to “Godzilla vs Kong,” another $7.7 million. The monster mash has … Continue reading →

There’s not a lot about Burhan Qurbani’s updating of “Berlin Alexanderplatz” that declares itself “adapted from one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.” It’s stately and long — nearly three hours. But Rainer Werner Fassbender’s definitive 1980 version, … Continue reading →

Sure, I’m as done with vampire movies as anybody. But a Bram Stoker riff in thick Irish brogues? Let’s have it, then. “Boys from County Hell” is about an outbreak of the undead in the homeland of “Dracula” author Stoker. … Continue reading →

As tortured hostage in Iraq tales go, “Wildcat” plays as entirely too chatty and slackly-paced. But it has its moments, a middle-sequence turnabout and a finale that has all the urgency missing from the first two acts. “Black Mirror” and … Continue reading →

It’s coming in mid May. He’s been a “Star Wars” hero, a Bond villain and a teacher with a drinking problem. Why not a vigilante?