Monthly Archives: November 2022

When you’re forced to serve up cinematic cheese, a certain enthusiasm in the performance can atone for some of the sins of the screenplay. That’s the nice way to get into “Fantasy Football,” a kids’ movie about a tech nerd/gamer … Continue reading →

“Wakanda Forever” has yet to have a steep STEEP drop-off in interest and ticket sales. But if $55 million is all it manages over the five day “Thanksgiving” weekend, it’s easy to see it won’t be setting any serious” “all … Continue reading →

The characters are always alone and lonely, the leads are always lovely but bland, the settings snowy and the “secrets” nothing to summon gentleman detective Benoit Blanc over. But holiday romances of the Hallmark school — a market Netflix has … Continue reading →

There have been several films titled “Girl with a Gun” or something very near that. It’s catchy, alliterative and tells you what you think you need to know in just a couple of words. There’s an attractive younger woman, and … Continue reading →

“The Swimmers” is an old-fashioned against-all-odds sports drama set against the dramatic backdrop of Europe’s Middle Eastern refugee crisis. Director and co-writer Sally El Hosaini makes this conventionally unconventional “feel good” story of the Mardini sisters‘ trials and triumphs entertaining, … Continue reading →

“Darkling” is a grimly disturbing drama about grief, psychotic stubbornness and paranoia set in the murderous ethnic strife of the 1990s Bosnian War. A Serbian farmer (Slavko Stivac) is hole- up on his rural Kosovo farm, barring the doors and … Continue reading →

Hollywood turned serial killers into urbane sophisticates, monsters who appreciate a good “chianti” with their murders, or geniuses who enjoy making a “game” out of their crimes to toy with the cops. Fact — most serial killers, the vast majority … Continue reading →

Any rom-com with “Christmas” in the title is bound by law to have a stale whiff of “Hallmark” about it, and Netflix hasn’t been shy about trying to grab that audience. So any cute or touching moments in “Christmas With … Continue reading →

One of the first movie-going memories from my childhood was my parents taking me to see “A Shot in the Dark,” probably at our small town drive-in, because in that corner of Virginia, the downtown cinema never stayed open for … Continue reading →

One of the best animated efforts by Netflix this year isn’t for kids. Not very young ones anyway. “Entergalactic,” inspired by and paired with Kid Cudi’s latest album, didn’t even need to be animated. It’s an utterly conventional young Black … Continue reading →