Monthly Archives: August 2022

As “pick-ups” go, it’s odd and “classic New York” at the same time. He’s spotted her entering a cafe. He follows her in and starts with a spiel — “first time in New York,” “left my bag on the train,” … Continue reading →

Viola Davis was just eight years old when she saw the TV movie that changed her life. The landmark film, “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” was broadcast for the first time in 1974. And even though “our television set” … Continue reading →

The most remarkable thing about “Private Desert,” about a cop discovering that the Internet crush he’s traveled 1400 kilometers to meet is transgender, is that cast and crew were able to get it made in the increasingly reactionary Brazil of … Continue reading →

A crime still in the news thanks to the malicious backwardness of one state. Coming to theaters in October.

The ancient town of Nasielsk still sits just over 30 miles north of Warsaw, Poland, its population roughly the same that it’s been for over a hundred years — just over 7400. But a huge number of its citizens were … Continue reading →

“Spin Me Round” is a screwy, slow-building cringe-comedy about a simple chain restaurant manager who gets more than she bargained for in a corporate training retreat in sunny Italy. It takes a while to get anywhere, but as we’re in … Continue reading →

Here’s a book that stopped me short when I saw it on the shelves. “Michael Cimino? Who even gives him a passing thought any more?” He’s remembered for making a Vietnam epic and then the quintessential, megalomaniacal Hollywood bomb, for … Continue reading →

Jazz — on record, in live performance and played in studio sessions — dominates, suffuses and sets the tone of “Learn to Swim,” a dark and dreamy romance set against the Toronto jazz scene. First-time feature director and co-writer Thyrone … Continue reading →

A thriller of modest budget and modest thrills, “Raven’s Hollow” gets by on funereal gloom and sheer ambition. An American Gothic horror story filmed in Latvia, it’s a period piece about Edgar Allan Poe’s West Point years. Grounded in fantasy … Continue reading →

A “portal” is discovered, a different perhaps “best life” is discovered? But first, let’s kill the guy who’s living it. Sept. 6.