Yearly Archives: 2023

As it closes in on 100 years since the Spanish Civil War, Spanish cinema is still debating the conflict, its lasting scars and the Catholic Church’s role in it — as victim of “leftist” reprisals, or as an authoritarian religion … Continue reading →

This opens Friday and could go either way, but it’s got a good cast. Brit taking on a Southern accent? Two of my favorite Brits are in it, both “Star Wars” alumni.

The easiest “tell” when you’re trying to figure out if what you’re watching is a B-movie or something further down the action budget alphabet is in the effects. How do the gunshots look and sound? How realistic is the bloody … Continue reading →

I think it’s safe to lay credit…or blame for this kid-friendly comedy at the feet of Keke Palmer. She hosted “SNL” and if memory serves, she not only inspired the sketch below, she’s the one who pushed for a little … Continue reading →

You have never seen Sandra Oh like this. The “Sideways/Killing Eve/The Same Storm” dramatic star has given us a dose of deadpan, here and there. But in “Quiz Lady,” she vamps through a ditzy, unfiltered and comically mercurial turn as … Continue reading →

What a shock to the British system the satire “The Admirable Crichton” must have been when it premiered on stage in 1902. Written by J.M. Barrie, the Scottish novelist and playwright who had himself quite a year in 1902 — … Continue reading →

The Spanish thriller “Viejos,” aka “The Elderly,” is a creepy, doom-laden sci-fi parable that doesn’t quite close the deal, a film of slow-building suspense whose climax lacks the clarity of intent and the level of terror in the performances to … Continue reading →

Foul-mouthed Olivia and fouler-mouthed Jessie. A period piece about profane postal espistles that piss off…scandalize a quaint corner of Britannia. Looks nasty, and funny.

“Pain Hustlers” is a “true story” inspired drama whose tone and story arc match that of the real “triumph of medicine” to “tragedy invented by Big Pharma” saga of opioids, the “pain” drug that many maintain “broke America.” The film … Continue reading →

Almost all the reviews of the video game adaptation “Five Nights at Freddy’s” have been bad. Awful. Or in one case, calling it just the worst. But Universal/Blumhouse had a killer premise, good trailers and when I left the theater … Continue reading →