Monthly Archives: October 2021

The slaughter of World War I is seen from the Eastern Front point of view in “The Rifleman,” a Latvian saga about that conflict and the Russian Civil War and Latvian fight for independence that followed. Documentary filmmaker Dzintars Dreibergs … Continue reading →

Hawke plays brother roles in this Nov. 19 thriller set in Rome as it faces a terrorist bombing. Ferrara hasn’t decamped from Italy, but he’s not working with his muse, Willem Dafoe, and he’s not making another indulgent navel gazing … Continue reading →

The Polish thriller “Operation Hyacinth” (“Hiacynt”) is based on an infamous piece of Communist history, Poland’s systemic police harassment, arrest, documentation and blackmail of the country’s homosexual population in the mid-1980s. If it was meant to create a database of … Continue reading →

Peter Jackson finally finished his deep dive into Beatles vault footage from their mad rush to finish “Let It Be,” the album and a TV special meant to accompany it. “Get Back” was the album’s ethos, getting the quarrelsome band … Continue reading →

A missing person, suggestions of crime and down-and-out working poor trailer-park Angelinos struggling to get by — let’s label “The Cleaner” an indie film noir and see if I can make that stick. This quirky, laid-back and downbeat drama is … Continue reading →

Well-crafted but not particularly well thought-out, “Halloween Kills” is a hot mess of a horror homage. David Gordon Green’s take on venerable slasher franchise has ambition, an attempt at intellectual heft and one of the most empathetic performances of the … Continue reading →

Scott Adkins, Ashley Green and Ryan Phillippe star in this Nov. 5 release, which the CIA and the Navy SEALS trying to avert a dirty bomb disaster. The title also refers to this being a story filmed in “one take” … Continue reading →

Why would actor, writer and director Miles Doleac (“Hallowed Ground,” “The Dinner Party”) set his latest horror fiasco in Der Black Forest of Deutschland? Did he meet folks he’d eventually cast in it at a continuing education class, Conversational German? … Continue reading →

The French leader, WWII hero and long-serving president of post-war France is remembered in his first blush of fame, trying to keep France in the fight while badgering Churchill for aid and standing in London after the French surrender in … Continue reading →

“She Paradise” arrives in North America just as the first snows hit — mid-November. A little island patois and Jamaican music, post-Marley, and some seriously sexy dancers.