Yearly Archives: 2023

Film fanatics don’t need an excuse to re-watch classic films, some of them over and over again across the decades from when we first encountered them. But if you’re a critic, one reason you do it is to check back … Continue reading →

Two grannies try to throw together their good-looking-but-still-single grandkids in “Make Me Believe,” a seriously bland, barely comic rom-com from Turkey. It’s a formula film that stumbles badly when it strays from the formula. But it has three stand-out features … Continue reading →

We were prepped for Robert Duvall’s Big Moment for a decade before it happened. From “The Godfather” (1972) through “Network” (1976), “The Great Santini” (1979), “Apocalypse Now” (1979) and “True Confessions” (1981), people who knew acting and film scholars with … Continue reading →

If a “twee” falls in the woods, would anyone hear it? “Asteroid City” is the latest from the Tsar of Twee, Wes Anderson. It’s an all-star, pull-out-all-the-stops “comedy” that wrestles existentialism, Group Theatre, “The Twilight Zone,” 1950s paranoia and 1950s … Continue reading →

Dreamworks cleverly timed the release of “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken,” to follow Disney’s live action “Little Mermaid” remake into theaters and into the hearts of parents and children everywhere. OK, maybe not. A movie in which mermaids are vain, murderously … Continue reading →

Ask anybody appearing in this violent Ethan Coen road picture romp and they’ll tell you. Things go to hell in a hurry when you’re Tallahassee bound. Sept. 23 is this comedy drops.

Aliens pay to watch Humans be human and fall in love. Sounds like pretty much half the Internet. Only Fans etc. This oddity, based on a YA novel I don’t know, features Tiffany Haddish as the adult in the room. … Continue reading →

You know what they used to say Katzenberg was King (OK, dauphin) of Burbank. “If you don’t come in Saturday don’t bother showing up for work Sunday.” Not a huge turnout for this kiddie preview of “Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken.” … Continue reading →

“The Flash” lost his flash Wednesday of its first week of release, falling behind the Pixar bomb “Elemental” in tickets sold for the day. That was but a harbinger of things to come, as a weak second Friday points to … Continue reading →

The underwater and surface of the sea images here are quite impressive and beautiful. Yes, that’s Jane Fonda’s voice you hear in the mix. Not sure how a riff on kraken vs mermaids high school feud will play, but I’m … Continue reading →