Monthly Archives: June 2022

The acting is underwhelming, the sound is tinny and off-mike and the script isn’t the least bit subtle about shoving exploitive nudity and lesbian sex into the lurid Lovecraft thriller, “H.P. Lovecraft’s Witch House.” So, amateurish? Hell yes. But the … Continue reading →

You glance at the poster or the DVD cover for “ScarfFace” and you figure “Ah, a new edition to the DePalma/Pacino Cuban gangster epic” is out. “Say ‘allo to my leetle friend” and all that. And then you see the … Continue reading →

Mandy Patinkin also stars in this “Let me tell you my story” sequel that takes “Wonder” and lessons about doing the right thing and kindness back to The Holocaust. October 14th.

“Sniper” movies are a combat genre all their own thanks to the fatal attraction of the loners — usually two-person teams — who do the work, hit-men or women in uniform, a one-or-two-shooter “surgical strike.” Many a first-person shooter video … Continue reading →

The most perilous minefield in the movies might be daring to explore teen sexuality on screen. Raunchy farces use the cover of comedy, because everybody knows taking this subject seriously risks crossing the line into straight-up exploitation. And whatever notoriety … Continue reading →

The rest of the “team” he assembles to take down the great evil menacing the universe makes its bow. Looks fun, and by July 8 we’ll all need a laugh and a reason to duck into a cold cineplex.

“Good Madam” is a tight, lightly-chilling horror tale from South Africa, a parable of a housekeeper and what “life in service” can mean, in a supernatural sense, in the former Apartheid state. And how this relatively simple story has twelve … Continue reading →

Labor Day, all you people will see why ol’Rodg always stays in hotels.

Movies that take us beyond showing gun violence as entertainment are rare. It’s not just the immediate, factual consequences of what happens when a human being is shot, the damage done and the trauma of the moment that we rarely … Continue reading →

The documentary as autobiography has been around for a while, with filmmakers like Ross McElwee (“Sherman’s March”) turning “personal essay” films into exercises in family history and a soul searching exploration of one’s place in it. Filmmaker and sometime actress … Continue reading →