Monthly Archives: December 2022

Netflixable? Tyler Perry serves up the soap as “A Jazzman’s Blues”

Tyler Perry turns his melodramatic eye on the recent past for his latest, a jazz-and-blues in 1940s Georgia tale titled “A Jazzman’s Blues.” It’s about race relations under Jim Crow, when miscegenation was a multi-syllable word even the trashiest rednecks … Continue reading

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Movie Preview: Are we amped up for “M3GAN” yet?

Here’s a featurette for the killer doll movie that emphasizes the technology “that’s already here” that could make this “Twilight Zone” nightmare Jan 6, “M3GAN” becomes the first major release of the new year, and I’m guessing…the first hit.

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Movie Preview: The Casablanca Records Saga, KISS and Donna Summer, “Spinning Gold” for Mr. Bogart

Late March, a more modestly–budgeted musical bio-pic comes our way. We recognize the ’70s disco and glam rock era icons Casablanca Records signed and rode to glory. The cast of the picture? Aside from Michelle Monaghan and Dan Fogler? Maybe … Continue reading

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Anthony Hopkins wishes one and all a Happy, and perhaps more sober New Year

How cool is it that Sir Anthony Hopkins is “47 years” sober, that he’s 85, and that he shares his New Year’s Eve birthday (TODAY) with Sir Ben Kingsley? This message reminds us that the Great Drunks of British Acting … Continue reading

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Netflixable? Key and Peele meet Henry Selick — “Wendell & Wild”

Well, if it took a Henry Selick stop-motion animated horror comedy to put Key and Peele tother again on the screen, we’ll take it. Netflix wrote the checks and the director of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline,” co-adapting a … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: Gould and Segal partner in Altman’s Ultimate Buddy picture, “California Split”(1974)

Every film buff has her or his own interpretation of what “Altmanesque” means. It’s the torrent of words, the hyper-naturalistic dialogue that has everybody talking at once, leaving it to the viewer — with a little help from the sound … Continue reading

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Movie Preview: Bob Odenkirk’s an artist looking at “Life Upside Down”

This Jan. 27 release used to be titled “Worlds Apart,” which doesn’t capture anything of the film’s apparent whimsical intent. Radha Mitchell, Danny Huston and Rosie Fellner also star in this Cecilia Miniucchi/IFC release.

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The Best Films of 2022

You’d think, in this still-pandemic-limited climate of fewer theatrical releases making it to theaters, and the slow return to “normalcy” as Hollywood and other corners of film culture gear back up, concocting a “ten best films” list would get easier. … Continue reading

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Netflixable? Polish parents, and a slacker, Power Play through “A Night at the Kindergarten”

“A Night at the Kindergarten” is a dark dramedy about a committee of Polish parents gathering to consider a few matters concerning their semi-exclusive school, and rehearse and prep for the next night’s Christmas pageant, which they will perform for … Continue reading

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Netflixable? “7 Women and a Murder” is an Italian murder-mystery-comedy that fails on all counts

The script is bad enough to make one pity the actresses saddled with role-playing this dog, seven women who might have found themselves envying the chap cast to play the unspeaking corpse. Not that their emotionally-dead, enervated performances are wholly … Continue reading

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