Monthly Archives: March 2022

Mental health “comedies” are a problematic genre, even when the film in question is an “Around the World with Netflix” rom-com from Italy. “Marilyn’s Eyes” proves that even Italy’s more old-fashioned sense of who and what we can laugh at … Continue reading →

Four and a half minutes into “Panama,” a spy games/Contra War thriller set just before the U.S. invasion of Noriegaland in 1989, I’m thinking “JAYZUS, that’s a lot of producer credits.” It seems like a hundred (only 30something) of these … Continue reading →

“The Hater” is a light political satire struggling to escape from a somewhat cumbersome big screen comedy, a classic 85 minute movie not-quite-smothered inside a 108 minute one. It has too many characters to do justice to, even at that … Continue reading →

As subtle as a cudgel, and almost as artful, “Unsilenced” is a Chinese polemic against Chinese one-party-state suppression of the Falun Gong religious and spiritual exercise movement. Sorry if I’m not characterizing this “religion” as accurately as I might, or … Continue reading →

I crack up every time Antonio Banderas lays on the jamon-laced purr in this role. Great voice casting, hilarious movies. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” comes to a cinema near your Sept. 23.

His gestures are economical and spare. Oscar winner Mark Rylance has his own particular interpretation of “underplaying,” turning a role into a life being lived in the moment on the screen. His melodious line readings, taking care with every syllable, … Continue reading →

What a tepid treatment of an intriguing piece of murderous plotting “Measure of Revenge” turns out to be. It’s a star vehicle for Oscar winner Melissa Leo in which she plays a grande dame of the theater, a woman famous … Continue reading →

Writer-director Pushpendra Singh’s “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs” has a lyrical, folk parable simplicity that instantly summons up memories of India’s greatest filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. Singh’s poetic film tells us the story of a Kashmiri woman’s marriage into “another … Continue reading →

April 8, it’s Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Knuckles the Hedgehog, and Jim Carrey vs. a very big mustache.

“Squared Love” is a vapid little “Around the World with Netflix” bauble from Poland, a romance about a teacher whose side hustle is modeling. By day, Monika is a doting Polish elementary school teacher, an innovator beloved by her kids … Continue reading →