Monthly Archives: August 2021

Beware the writer/director/star filmmaker who imagines his character as irresistible catnip to the ladies. Call it the “Edward Burns Delusion,” because it’s a good rule of thumb, and a cautionary one worth taking into account if you’re writing yourself into … Continue reading →

“Really Love” invites you to tumble into its sophisticated milieu, the Washington, D.C. of African American art and artists, aspirational affluence and a romance that crosses classes. The tony galleries, early career ambitions, beautiful people doing beautiful things set to … Continue reading →

“The Madness Inside Me” is a lukewarm-at-best psychological thriller about a widowed crime victim who engages in sexually charged games with the man who killed her husband. The added twist? Madison (Merrin Dungey) is a forensic psychologist. She knows the … Continue reading →

You might remember the end of this story. A murderous Saudi sheik buys a mysterious “lost” painting by Leonardo da Vinci for a king’s ransom and tries to get it wholly legitimized by loaning it to the Louvre Museum to … Continue reading →

The tennis is good, the filming and editing of the tennis even better in the French sports melodrama “Final Set.” It’s a “Big Game/Big Match” movie with all the trappings of the genre — lots of foreshadowing, an aged veteran … Continue reading →

It’s a tribute to the professionalism of your typical movie set that all C-movies don’t face that mid-production attack of the giggles that impacts what we see on the screen. The film has little budget. The cast has been on … Continue reading →

Ruth Platt’s “Martyr’s Lane” is horror at a low simmer, a triumph of tone over content, performances over frights. This beautifully Gothic ghost story rests on the shoulders of two angelic moppets, a film that makes its myopic simplicity a … Continue reading →

The plot has been around since Shakespeare sold out to Netflix. Guy courts woman, or vice versa, based on a dare, a bet or some other “arrangement.” It’s a “Taming of the Shrew” variation, whether it’s “Cruel Intentions” or “Ten … Continue reading →

He died in 1995, but there’s plenty of evidence that PBS painting show star Bob Ross is as popular as ever. For starters, the reruns of the 30 series of “Joy of Painting” that he did for the network are … Continue reading →

“HipBeat” opens with docudrama scenes of European protest and solemn voice-over narration. “No one is free if others are oppressed,” the aptly-named “Angy” (short for Angus) intones. We’re “being lied to…capitalism ruined democracy…These police, they’re only here to protect capitalism.” … Continue reading →