Monthly Archives: February 2022

Few movies have ever made as an abrupt a turn as Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco’s “Sundown,” a downbeat melodrama about dissipation, its causes and its consequences. It features a performance of perfectly poker-faced ennui by Tim Roth, a desperate breakdown … Continue reading →

A deep bow of respect to the folks who cooked up “Love Tactics ( Ask Taktikleri),” a shiny and somewhat modern Turkish romantic comedy that, via Netflix, might show the world how Turkey itself is somewhat modern and shiny. This is … Continue reading →

Ivan Reitman didn’t direct a lot of films, just 20 features over a career that spanned over 40 years. But his imprint on screen comedy was enormous, launching actors to stardom and fellow filmmakers who followed in his irreverent, sweet … Continue reading →

After last year’s Oscars announced the “arrival” of director Lee Isaac Chung, those clever celluloid archivists at Film Movement rounded up the Korean-American filmmaker’s earlier works and released them as DVDs and on Film Movement+. Seeing “Munyurangabo,” “Abigail Harm” and … Continue reading →

Here’s the TV commercial for this summer release. Yup, “Nope” looks cryptic and creepy and big and outdoorsy. Daniel Kaluuya costars, with Steven Yuen and Donna Mills and horror mainstay Michael Wincott. Love that Keke.

Well, at least they kept “the cute.” Some of it, anyway. The sequel to the glib and engaging “Tall Girl,” telling of the trials and tribulations of a towering beauty at her Louisiana high school settled on a theme — … Continue reading →

It’s not Valentine’s Day yet, but the big room com released this weekend — almost all ROM and no com — is already being called a flop. “Marry Me” is sweet and it plays, but it didn’t manage much on … Continue reading →

Recognize him? “High Fidelity” and “Peaky Blinders,” and he was Obama in “The Comey Rule” on TV. He was Malcolm X in “One Night in Miami.” Can he sing? Play guitar? Look great in dreads? Deadline.com broke the story, which … Continue reading →

A phrase that become a Twitter trend during the Trump Era pops to mind when watching “Within the Whirlwind” and recalling what the Russians under Stalin did to their own people to placate the paranoia of a megalomaniac. “The cruelty’s … Continue reading →

Some movies are slow. Some manage a kind of languid torpor. And there’s “Help,” which might be described as “inert.” It’s a disastrously undramatic debut feature from writer-director and bit “character” in the film Blake Ridder, who is also distributing … Continue reading →