Yearly Archives: 2023

Eli Roth’s back to take more perverse pleasure in pain — his movies’ “victims,” and that of viewers laughing at the gore but grimacing at the cruelty — with a holiday treat titled “Thanksgiving.” At least with “Thanksgiving,” a splatter … Continue reading →

The world of “The Hunger Games” comes rushing back to you — well, sauntering back to you — not that long into “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.” It’s been eight years since the “original trilogy” wrapped … Continue reading →

Orlandoans– some of us anyway — avoid “The Parks” for their traffic, the crowds, the long trips from parking deck to “park,” the prices and, as a local DJ’s hit single described, “God—-d Tourists.” But it’s rainy and gloomy. There’s … Continue reading →

Yes, this coming Turkey Day we’ll have a spree killing to be thankful for, one that stars Patrick Dempsey. “Thanksgiving” is next week, literally and cinematically. And that’s the trailer I’ve included below. “Hunger Games?” This prequel is starting in … Continue reading →

Our first glimpse of the “Maestro” almost takes one’s breath away. It’s an older Leonard Bernstein — tanned, weathered, familiar mop of unkempt white hair, omnipresent cigarette smoldering within reach, playing a somewhat atonal modern piece at the piano, his … Continue reading →

I’ve had a soft spot for Mexican cinema star, director and producer Eugenio Derbez ever since his North American breakthrough, playing a “Dad” out of his depth with a tiny kid in “Intructions Not Included.” His Hollywood-produced projects have been … Continue reading →

In his prime, the 1940s to the 1960s, Kirk Douglas only made a couple of films that would have tipped his fans that he was born Issur Herschelevitch Danielovitch, and that among the things his name-change brushed over was his … Continue reading →

Netflix wasn’t going to get its hands on Disney’s “Star Wars” intellectual property in any form any time soon. But Zack Snyder apparently had this “Star Wars” pitch that he could rewrite into something “original,” a two-film two part saga, … Continue reading →

“Sitting in Bars with Cake” is a cutesy but limp rom-com with a heaping helping of “Big Sick” seriousness meant to knock us down off a sugar high it never achieves. Based on a memoir by Audrey Schulman and thus … Continue reading →

François Ozon’s latest is a period piece about “a bad actress” and a bad or at least unscrupulous lady lawyer who use a false murder accusation as a way to gin up publicity and score feminist points for equality. Shockingly, the … Continue reading →