Monthly Archives: January 2022

Kudos to whatever outsourced functionary working for Netflix who changed the title of the Mexican film “El comediante” to “This is Not a Comedy” for Norte Americano consumption. That’s truth in advertising. And I’m just guessing here, but I’ll bet … Continue reading →

A bracing opening weekend for Paramount’s reboot of “Scream,” which is coasting on a pre-snowstorm $30.6 million, $35 million over the MLK holiday projected opening. It did well under $4 million Thursday night, but a big $13 million Friday pointed … Continue reading →

“Old Strangers,” a thriller awkwardly resembling a “creature feature,” and even more awkwardly labeled a “thriller,” falls somewhere on the student film/relatives-wrote-me-checks-so’s-I-could-make-a-movie spectrum of ineptitude. The fact that it’s listed as the third film, stretching back over 15 years, of … Continue reading →

It came and it went, without most anyone noticing. “A Shock to the System,” a deliciously dark comedy in a minor, murderous key, is one of the many minor gems on Michael Caine’s cinema resume. But what those of us … Continue reading →

Today’s Roger DVDseed donation — in which I donate a disc to a public library I pass by, spreading fine cinema across America, one disc at a time — is a movie I just reviewed, now on BluRay via Film … Continue reading →

We’ve figured out where the murder mystery/thriller “Brazen” is going long before our heroine finds herself in the presence of the murderer in the “explain it all” talk talk talk finale. Truth be told, there aren’t a lot of surprises … Continue reading →

It’s been accepted wisdom for much of my adult life that “Slap Shot” is “the greatest sports movie of all time.” A rude, bloody and irreverent 1970s story of minor league hockey, it was the last time director George Roy … Continue reading →

With all the awards season attention coming to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” it’s worth catching up with his earlier films, if nothing else to see how his style evolved in a way that emphasized patience, the “slow cinema” that … Continue reading →

We all know who and what Mel Gibson is, has been and can be. There’s a reason he was “canceled” and shows up in C-movies and bit parts in Bs like this one. I take something more like a Jodie … Continue reading →

“The King’s Daughter,” a lush and lavish period piece based on the Nebula Award-inning novel “The Moon and the Sun,” is a film with its own history. You don’t have to have ever heard anything about the production to get … Continue reading →