Yearly Archives: 2023

Some movies come to you, passing on their insights directly, underlining their message and themes. More challenging films make you come to them. Morissa Maltz’s “The Unknown Country” is a rare example of the latter made even rarer by the … Continue reading →

By the late 1960s, John le Carré was just coming into his own as the  the new Graham Greene, a sophsticated, subtle “thinking person’s spy novelist.” “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” had shown the former MI5/MI6 insider … Continue reading →

Writer-director Adam Sigal (“The Two Dogs,” no, me either) has cooked up a true (ish) story about a Hungarian American parapsychologist who visited the Isle of Man in 1935 to figure out why the locals insisted they were hearing from … Continue reading →

He looks worn and weary from a bout…with something, we don’t know what. The rumor that made the most sense to me was a “stroke” after a heated argument, but there’s little evidence of that in his speech, which would … Continue reading →

“Seasons” is a tedious, tepid and inane romance about a woman who toys with her boy “friend” and reaps the consequences. It’s meant to be a rom-com, but it isn’t the least bit funny. The leads are pretty, and Lovie … Continue reading →

If you didn’t see “Glitter & Doom,” a wistful musical set to the songs of Indigo Girls, you should. It’s damned adorable. I saw it, but didn’t realize it was a harbinger of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers having ” … Continue reading →

The mere hint of the fights sampled here is “Old Boy” gonzo. Stuntman turned director Kensuke Sonomura (“Hydra”) really outdid himself this time. “Bad City,” streams Aug. 1 and hits DVD Sept. 19 from our font of all fun films … Continue reading →

“For a number of reasons, film buffs have long harbored the feeling that Orson Welles had a hand in directing some of — perhaps his own scenes — Carol Reed’s film noir masterpiece “The Third Man.” The best arguments for … Continue reading →

A masterfully-marketed, cleverly conceived and brilliantly-acted SATIRE about a skinny “stereotypical” “perfect” plastic doll is melting down the late July box office with an opening weekend for the ages. Warner Bros. was whispering “$75,” everybody else was saying “$125” but … Continue reading →

If you look at the history of the suicide bombings as a weapon of Palestinian militants, you can see that it’s basically not happening anymore. Sporadic rocket attacks and occasional shootings, yes. So why release this movie when it feels … Continue reading →