Monthly Archives: August 2021

“Beckett” is a piece of pulse-pounding poppycock whipped up as a star vehicle for John David Washington. It’s got enough going for it that I’d like to recommend it. But I have reservations. Boy, do I ever. The title character … Continue reading →

Much of the enduring pop and rock of the 1980s had this shimmering, sunny sheen and rhythmic bounce to it, and that wasn’t just a product of the end of disco and punk as they were absorbed into New Wave … Continue reading →

Distributor Gunpowder & Sky takes a shot at Netflix teen film turf with this latest spin on the classic “Cyrano de Bergerac,” coming out in early Sept. Better than “The Half of It” or “Sierra Burgess is a Loser”? We … Continue reading →

Some good ideas and chewy, hardboiled dialogue don’t entirely go to waste in “Crime Story,” a thriller that barely transcends its beyond-generic title. You have to buy Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss, in his reduced-mobility years, as a retired mobster still … Continue reading →

Udo Kier takes a tragi-comic victory lap in his storied career with “Swan Song,” an old man’s odyssey long walk into twilight, revisiting and even reliving past glories as he does. In cinema buff shorthand, it’s David Lynch’s “The Straight … Continue reading →

A “Blade Runner” set in an ever-closing-in future, a world where machines become the new Tinder/Grindr, and murderous stuff is going down? Sept. 3.

Sept. 17, get CAGED. Sofia Boutella and Nick Cassavetes are among the co-stars of this “legendary” tale about the one man who can break a curse and free a kidnapped young woman.

Sometimes, it can seem that the only reminder that Netflix didn’t always own the teen rom-com market at the movies is the presence of Molly Ringwald as the Mom in the “Kissing Booth” movies. The first film, back in 2018, … Continue reading →

I doff my fedora at any indie filmmaker with the wherewithal to take a shot at making a period piece with little or no money, rather than going the slasher/spatter film route like everybody else. But if you’re letting actors … Continue reading →

Netflix has this different spin on 9/11, a movie about the quantifying of the value of a life that went on after 3000 Americans were murdered by Saudi financed hijackers while George W Bush napped.