Monthly Archives: September 2021

A Cornelia Funke (“Inkheart”) novel allowed a German/Dutch animation operation and Netflix to elbow their way into “lads who ride dragons” stories with “Firedrake the Silver Dragon,” a movie that goofs on “How to Train Your Dragon” and makes itself … Continue reading →

The early sequences of “The Jesus Music,” a history of CCM — “contemporary Christian music” — depict the social ferment that “the movement” was born in — the late 1960s. And the interview subjects popping up on screen and the … Continue reading →

A 60 year-old accountant from New York (state) wants to be a pop star, some sort of conceptual/multi-media pop performer of the Michael Jackson/Grace Jones/Talking Heads in “Stop Making Sense” mold. So he blows a wad of cash on a … Continue reading →

The “rallies” are “academies,” basically bubbly conventions where smiling young like-minded faces gather, live-stream vlogs with their selfie sticks, buy t-shirts, sample gins and hear presentations. And those speeches? They’re Tony Robbins-affirmative, TED Talk slick and Promise Keepers creepy. The … Continue reading →

The plea, suggestion and threat is all in a single line and one delivered on screen long after the viewer has thought it or even muttered it aloud. “Get some help, mate.” “Surge” is one man’s experiment in going full … Continue reading →

Sometime around 1990, Dave Stewart of Eurythmics contacted Robert Palmer — the shambolic music journalist, not the dapper rock star — and got him to be his tour guide through America’s blues country for a short stretch between legs of … Continue reading →

Lifelong friends and comic colleagues Whitney Call and Mallory Everton pair up again for “Stop and Go,” the most infectiously funny COVID road comedy ever. They co-wrote and co-star in a manic but never frantic tale of sisters dashing from … Continue reading →

“The Starling” is a forlorn parable about crippling grief and the tragedies in life that are beyond our control. It has an expertly comic cast and is based on a former “black list” script — one deemed a hot Hollywood … Continue reading →

In teen rom-coms, the “ugly duckling” is never, ever ugly. The “unpopular” kid is never repellent. And Mr. Right is always right under your nose. All you have to do is wax off the mustache to see him. “Confessions of … Continue reading →

“Birds of Paradise” is a dance film that begins with a jete and rises into an arabesque before collapsing in a heap, a parade of ballet drama cliches that winds up stuck at the barre. The set up — ballerinas … Continue reading →