Monthly Archives: January 2022

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 →

“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 →

There’s a fine line between blarney and balderdash. Actually, there isn’t. But I’m just trying to have a little pity for the folks who made “Riverdance: The Animated Adventure.” It’s an absurd, strained and seriously unfunny animated comedy that shows … Continue reading →

What a curiosity this musical without music turned out to be. Joshua Logan’s romantic melodrama “Fanny” (1961) has the air of a “let’s do something like ‘Gigi’” about it, another star vehicle for Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier, more gorgeous … Continue reading →

Adam Sandler’s gone, but “Hotel Transylvania,” the animated franchise that refuses to die, is back as “Hotel Transylvania: Transformania” makes its debut as an Amazon Prime release. Replacement voice Brian Hull so perfectly mimics Sandler’s take on the vampire’s vampire … Continue reading →

The studio has been urging viewers not to give away the latest “twist” ending in a long line of such “Oh, he/She/THEY did its” in the “Scream” franchise. As well they should. Nobody should spoil a picture as spoiler-alertable as … Continue reading →

“How I Fell in Love with a Gangster” is a Polish “Blow,” “Mesrine” and “American Gangster,” all rolled into one — a mini-series or at least Scorsese-length picture about Poland’s “most renowned criminal of all time.” Nikodem “Nikoś” Skotarczak had … Continue reading →

Ukrainian filmmaker Kateryna Gornostai reaches for docu-drama reality with her debut feature film, “Stop-Zemlia,” a peek inside the lives of high school teens facing final exams and “the future” with childish obliviousness and adult concern and uncertainty. The ground covered, … Continue reading →

“The House” may be the most delightfully strange project Netflix has ever put its money behind. They’re calling this Nexus Studios stop-motion animated tale a darker-than-dark “comedy series,” but don’t you believe it. It’s a warped anthology, with three separate … Continue reading →