Monthly Archives: April 2021

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 →

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?

It’s one of those pieces of early football history, like the legends of Pop Warner and Jim Thorpe and Knute Rockne and “The Gipper.” “12 Mighty Orphans” recalls a Depression Era football team of over-achievers from a Texas orphanage. Like … Continue reading →

The dark Swiss chocolate analogy fits the Swiss comedy “My Wonderful Wanda” to a T, a bitter, wincing farce with an aftertaste that leaves you with a smile. Death and new life, cultural prejudices and that Swiss obsession with money … Continue reading →

Today on “Escape to Horror Country,” we visit a haunted parsonage in Essex, a manor house that in a prior life, was home to a burned-out Christian sect, and the period perfect setting for “The Banishing,” a pre-war British period … Continue reading →