Monthly Archives: May 2021

“The Killing of Two Lovers” is a break-up story as stark as its Utah-in-winter setting, as brutal as its title. The debut feature of writer-director Robert Machoian throws us into the seemingly quiet aftermath of a split, the calm after … Continue reading →

When you’re mute, nobody can hear you scream. That’s the horror hook for “The Djinn,” a generic but well-executed tale of a little boy who makes the right wish of the wrong genie. The standard ingredients of such a tale … Continue reading →

If a mere Madeleine could send Proust “In Search of Lost Time,” surely a bon bon of a movie can inspire a reverie of films and times past, trips taken and those that lie on every traveler’s elusive “Bucket List.” … Continue reading →

“Iceman” is an attempt to create a back story for the frozen, mummified caveman found in the Ötztal Alps, on the Italian-Austrian border, in 1991. He was nicknamed “Ötzi the Iceman” by researchers, and was found with a full complement … Continue reading →

Guy Ritchie’s reunion for a not-quite-humorless/entirely-too-American and violent and “serious” heist picture with Jason Statham didn’t stir the box office much — $8.1 million was all “Wrath of Man” could manage. Decent reviews could have helped, but weren’t allowed to. … Continue reading →

Elon and Miley and…Chad.

“High Ground” is a violent, vengeance-driven Western set at the end of the Frontier era in northern Australia. More intimate than epic, but gorgeous, stately and tense, it captures a last burst of tit-for-tat reprisals in a country starting to … Continue reading →

It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen Preston Sturges’ masterpiece, “Sullivan’s Travels.” Watching it again on Mother’s Day weekend (my mother had never seen it) reminded me of the fickle nature of memory, when it comes to movies. … Continue reading →

John Frankenheimer made his leap from “Golden Age of Television” TV director to big screen Big Name director permanent with “The Young Savages,” a flinty, gritty courtroom drama dressed up as a street gang murder thriller. He’d just turned 30 … Continue reading →

I interviewed Romero once or twice, interviews that always turned toward why he wasn’t able to get his films financed. As indie and DIY as the “Night of the Living Dead” icon was, little he managed to get in front … Continue reading →