Monthly Archives: August 2021

This one streams on Shudder Sept.9, at the start of the Halloween horror season.

Comically flat, emotionally thin but not-entirely-charmless, “Out of My League” is a distinctly Italian take on young love shadowed by terminal illness. Like more than one Italian film that I’ve taken in as we journey “around the world with Netflix,” … Continue reading →

Cary Elwes as a New York Times book critic? Will he survive his encounter with the grizzled, grumpy and soused old coot Caine plays in this Sept. 17 comedy?

They gave Oscar winner Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”) her biggest check, lined up Jolie and Hayek as “names” and pulled together an “X-Men: First Class” sized ensemble of young superheroes to be super-heroic. Gemma Chan, Brian Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, Kit … Continue reading →

Embrace the “Blade Runner” sci-fi noir look, the post apocalyptic gloom and the embittered voice-over of the jaded hero, and you can roll with the punches “Reminiscence” throws at you. For a while, anyway. “Nothing is more addictive than the … Continue reading →

True confessions time. Netflix has decided “hot for teacher” movies fit my algorithm. I don’t know why, as most of the movies of this warped little corner of thrillerdom that I review aren’t on Netflix, although many turn up there … Continue reading →

First comes the gimmick. It looks like a green screen in need of a tune up, actors superimposed on a set, their images translucent and staticky, little bits of the set show through their bodies, clothes, etc. As that effect, … Continue reading →

In my mind, at least, Tom Everett Scott went straight from “Shades,” the cool, turtle-necked drummer in “That Thing You Do” to middle aged man “dad” roles, with barely a “boyfriend of the leading lady” in between. So it’s a … Continue reading →

One of the great character actors, the definitive “Frankenstein’s monster,” the one and only narrator of the only “Grinch” that matters, Boris Karloff gets a documentary tribute on Sept. 17.

“Confetti” is a pleasantly syrupy “a mother’s love” wish fulfillment fantasy, a story of how far one Chinese mom will travel to get her child the educational help she needs. Writer-director Ann Hu’s film may play as far-fetched, sometimes extremely … Continue reading →