Monthly Archives: August 2021

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.

“Ema,” the latest film from Chilean director Pablo Larraín, is about interpretative modern dance, so naturally it’s “open to interpretation.” The director of “Jackie” and “Neruda” has conjured up a fever dream of tragedy, the “monster” who feels responsible for … Continue reading →

Ady Barkan first gained national notoriety during the 2018 midterm elections, campaigning cross country in Republican-held Congressional districts, going to war over a single issue — health care, and the GOP’s efforts to “destabilize the entire health care system” to … Continue reading →

Creepy looking head-games horror, this festival darling comes our way from Shudder on August 26. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/Mosquito/CqMvqmWTjKtDqMkHFSLVfNMdVMGbNKZFzgFSMnjrtRwNzSFZGxGsJdjbDksnHZVWGdfjcBcNxRL?projector=1

“Geez & Ann” is a high school to college romance among young Indonesian Muslims, a movie whose sharp production values can’t compensate for the woefully incomplete love affair it tries to capture. To Western eyes, at least, this kiss-less, years-long … Continue reading →

This September release, about miners ordered to tunnel beneath German trenches to blow them up covers similar ground to “Tunnel Rats” and “Beneath Hill 60.” Grim business, good ground for a war drama, with class etc. playing a role.

Richard Schiff made a good Jerry Wexler in “Ray,” playing the R&B fanatic record producer and Atlantic Records co-founder earlier in his career. But Marc Maron’s take on him — the voice, the look (skinnier, yes), the “Do what the … Continue reading →

A piece of Aussie lore that evolved into slang becomes the title of “Buckley’s Chance,” a lad-lost-in-the-Outback drama that takes a bloody long time to get that lad lost in the Outback. It’s about Ridley (Milan Burch), a New York … Continue reading →