Monthly Archives: January 2022

Peter Bogdanovich, “Paper Moon,” “Mask,” “Last Picture Show” and “The Cat’s Meow” director dies — 1939-2022

Critic and essayist turned documentary and then feature filmmaker, a director of “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” specializing in nostalgia and homages to the past, a star director who wrecked his career in all sorts of personal, stupid … Continue reading

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Movie Review: A great cast and clever conceit are wasted in “The 355”

On paper, “The 355” looked a lot better than it turned out. A glossy, fast-moving and violent B-movie, an espionage thriller built around five acclaimed actresses — two of them Oscar winners, another a two-time nominee — this could have … Continue reading

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Documentary Preview: “We Need to talk About Cosby”

Jan 30, we find found out if this is as damning a reckoning as it seems. On Showtime. Four episodes.

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Movie Preview: Revenge is a dish best served by Liam Neeson, by “Blacklight”

A Feb. 11 thriller of the Liam as a lethal Fed/grandpa who crosses the wrong Deep Staters. Aidan Quinn is the biggest name among his co stars. Never heard of this distributor so good luck finding it when it comes … Continue reading

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Movie Preview: Cusack and Hirsch play a father and son mixed up in a deadly “Pursuit”

A hacker’s wife is taken, his government assassin dad may know something about it. Emile Hirsch and John Cusack star in this Feb. 18 C-movie, with Cusack eschewing his trademark black baseball cap. For once.

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Movie Preview: Riseborough stars as another mother obsessed with a lost daughter — “Here Before”

This Feb. thriller is about a grieving mom who thinks a neighbor’s child is her own, reincarnated Love that Riseborough.

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Netflixable? Not-a-Blade-Runner Guy Pearce gets lost in “Zone 414”

The ghost of “Blade Runner” casts a long, gloomy shadow over sci-fi dystopias, all but defining what we think our hellscape future looks like — dark, rainy and overrun with attractive human-looking robots. They didn’t spend any money on the … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: New York teens run a campaign for president — “American Gadfly”

Sometimes your homework on a film takes you back to first principles. Is “American Gadfly” a documentary, or is it a mockumentary? The pitch from a publicist hired by the self-distributing filmmakers had me befuddled. Senator Mike Gravel? From Alaska? … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “TRON” meets “Beauty and the Beast” in anime — “Belle”

“Belle” is an ambitious anime fantasy with gorgeous, dreamy, CGI-assisted eye-candy images illustrating a somewhat cumbersome marriage of sci-fi and fairytale fantasy. It is grounded in a classic Japanese anime setting — a rural, mountainside town and high school. But … Continue reading

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A day off from the Movies to take in Bob Dylan’s paintings, sketches and flash cards in Miami

The most complete exhibition ever of Dylan as visual artist shows him a sort of imitation  Edward Hopper of Hibbing, with a heavy dose of Van Gogh and a hint of late period Winslow Homer. This Bob Dylan the Visual … Continue reading

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