Yearly Archives: 2023

Movie Preview: “3 Days in Malay” puts Mandylor and Marines in the Malayan Campaign at the start of WWII

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of “true events” that this B-movie was “inspired” by. An integrated Marine unit fighting the Japanese in 1942? The heck you say? August 11.

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Netflixable? “Bird Box: Barcelona” brings Blind Faith in as a Subtext

The second film Neflix has made out of Josh Malerman’s dystopian thriller novel “Bird Box” has two veterans of the viral/zombie thriller genre, the Spanish Pastor brothers (“Carriers”), behind the camera, and not the Emmy winning Danish director Susanne Bier, … Continue reading

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“Sound of Freedom” — the Gift to Crackpots that Keeps on Giving

There’s always movie money to be made by pandering to a particular audience, be it comic book and sci-fi fanboys and fangirls, foodies, this under-represented race or that disrespected cult. Back when it was called 20th Century Fox, somebody thought … Continue reading

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Movie Review: A Colorfully Grim Depiction of Life on the Rez — “War Pony”

“War Pony” is a compelling, wholly-lived-in drama that tracks the dead-end lives of two aimless young males of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and Nebraska. We follow immature-even-for-19 Bill and tweenage Matho as they navigate their opportunity-deprived … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “The Lesson” gets lost in the lesson plan

“The Lesson” is a writerly thriller that spends the better part of its first hour trying to convince you it’s not “Deathtrap Lite,” no matter how many times its author-antagonist insists “Good writers ‘borrow,’ great writers STEAL.” And then the … Continue reading

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Movie Review: More Sad than Desperate, “The Miracle Club” travels to Lourdes

“The Miracle Club” is a downbeat Irish Catholic character study in a minor key, a period piece about the tragedy, desperation and simple superstition that sends the faithful to the French shrine at Lourdes in search of “the cure.” What … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: Black and Trans, or Trans-attracted — “Kokomo City” street life

Friend, if you can’t get an entertaining documentary built around defiant, defensive, sassy and verbose Black transgender sex-workers, you’re talking to the WRONG Black transgender sex workers. Transgender filmmaker D. Smith finds a fascinating subjects to profile in New York, … Continue reading

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Movie Preview: Temuera Morrison and Isabel Lucas star in a Down Under surfing thriller, “Sons of Summer”

Shades of “Point Break,” mate. Looks solid and salty. July 28.

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Movie Review: A brooding, self-absorbed writer looks up to find his world “Afire”

Leon talks a good game. He’s come to the summer house of a friend, in the forest set back from the sea, to “work.” He has “a manuscript” and a “deadline.” The friend — Felix — wants to dash off … Continue reading

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Today’s DVD Donation? “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” Maitland, Fla?

I really enjoyed this moody Chinese film noir about an inmate remembering why he’s in prison. “Spare, dark and gritty,” an award winner at Cannes, this Film Movement release deserves a bigger audience. Now the good folks of Maitland, Florida … Continue reading

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