Monthly Archives: August 2021

I’ve seen and reviewed a few Robinson Crusoes over the years. Aidan Quinn was in a good one, Pierce Brosnan did another. “The Wild Life” was a cartoon version that came out in 2016. Georges Melies made it one of … Continue reading →

“The Old Ways” is an intriguing Mexican twist on the exorcism thriller. It imagines a demonic possession diagnosed and treated in “the old ways” in a remote corner of the culture that’s more tribal than Spanish, more pagan than Catholic. … Continue reading →

Fun fact, “Vacation Friends” was set up as a comedy to star the then-married Anna Faris and Chris Pratt — back in 2014. Was that even its first incarnation? The point is, this pitch was funny enough to make the … Continue reading →

I got eight episodes into “Only Murders in the Building,” the comic mystery series starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as aspiring “true crime” podcasters trying to solve a mysterious death in their New York apartment tower. That’s … Continue reading →

“Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie’s Dead Aunt)” is so gossamer-light and cute that you don’t realize how good it is until it punches you, right in the heart. Monica Zanetti’s Aussie LGBTQ coming-of-age romance never lets us see her, or … Continue reading →

The triumph of Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman” is the sense of occasion the director and her co-writer/producer Jordan Peele bring to this reboot. This is horror with grandeur, a movie that pays homage to history and feels so of-the-moment as to … Continue reading →

“Flag Day,” director and star Sean Penn’s painterly but somewhat perfunctory tale of toxic parenting, was intended as a star vehicle for his daughter Dylan Penn. And he makes sure it fills the bill, in that regard, a movie of … Continue reading →

There are “film festival” movies, pictures so odd that there’s no audience for them outside of “The Festival Circuit,” and there are student films, which are unpolished and indulgent for a reasons, and there are even student “film festival” films … Continue reading →

“PAW Patrol: The Movie” is not for anybody old enough to read a movie review — even “Young Sheldon” in his nappies. With animation a little more “Jimmy Neutron” polished than TV, an infantile story and no jokes that play … Continue reading →

Our endless fascination with “Lady Killer” Ted Bundy means we’ve seen a lot of handsome look-alikes play him on the screen, from Mark Harmon and Cary Elwes to Zac Efron, each taking a shot at a mass-murderer with cover boy … Continue reading →