Yearly Archives: 2023

Michael Fassbender doesn’t do much that’s comic. But this Taika Waititi production looks hilarious, and putting ABBA on the trailer just doubled down on the adorable. Last I checked, “Next Goal Wins” opens Nov. 17.

I’m hard-pressed to think of a screen role Aaron Eckhart didn’t commit to, heart and soul. A-pictures and B-movies, bit parts or leads, he’s present, prepped and accounted for every time somebody yells “Action!” For his latest, he’s hit the … Continue reading →

“Sayen: Desert Road (Sayen: La Ruta Seca)” is a Chilean B-movie thriller about the further adventures of activist/investigator and freedom fighter Sayen, a two-fisted Mapuche woman plunging into a Big Conspiracy destroying her people and and enriching the corrupt in … Continue reading →

It was never going to be pretty. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” set all sorts of records on its opening weekend, blowing up to a Halloween Eve $80 million take that told us It has a huge teen fanbase and they … Continue reading →

Before the words “cultural appropriation” and Western filters through which to view the “exotic East” fell out of fashion, the TV version of James Clavell’s epic novel “Shogun” was a major mini-series event of the TV of 1980. Mini series … Continue reading →

Karen Dionne’s Crimson Scribe-award winning, best-selling novel “The Marsh King’s Daughter” earns a sturdy, suspenseful big screen treatment by the director of “The Illusionist” and “The Upside.” Neil Burger benefits from having a compelling lead — Daisy Ridley — and … Continue reading →

I HATE Bon Jovi. Just…hate. But there’s something kinda right about using a Pop Hair Metal (shudder) Hall of Famers’ tune to score this action comedy reboot of the ’80s TV series about a stunt man who hustles a little … Continue reading →

“Fingernails” is a romantic curiosity with a touch of sci-fi, a film that puts The Observer Effect in a human relationships context. That’s the physics phenomenon/theory that you change something merely by the act of studying or “observing” it. This … Continue reading →

That critic’s rule that you’ve got to meet every film on something resembling its own terms in order to give it a fair shot gets a severe test with “Love Virtually,” an indie action rom/com that’s part live-action, part CGI … Continue reading →

There’s something disturbing about the way Eisenberg bulks up and does a whole testonery turn — like his alter ego Mark Zuckerberg — in this part. Zuck, the “Social Network” inventor, went through that and took walking potatocake Elon Musk’s … Continue reading →