Yearly Archives: 2023

Guilty pleasure picture or a bucket list movie for Robert Mitchum completists, Don Siegel’s “The Big Steal” is a must-see for film buffs who like their tough guys tough, their dames mouthy and their action lean and mean — simple … Continue reading →

One of the illusions fed by the old, Darwinian model of cinema distribution was the notion that every “foreign” film must be good, if it made it all the way to North America. A film that stirred up attention and … Continue reading →

Pick up any biography or autobiography of the glitterati of the Swinging Sixties or Hedonistic ’70s and you’ll find mentions — plenty of mentions — of the surrealist painter and Spanish bon vivant Salvador Dali. He might have been infatuated … Continue reading →

That darned Brian Cox has been busy. “Succession” wraps up, he had that fly fishing movie in the can (“Mending the Line“). And now this drama about a terminally ill ex-con coming to stay with his daughter and do some … Continue reading →

A good cast and some impressively played, staged, filmed and edited basketball come together in “Shooting Stars,” an over-familiar feel-good sports drama about the relationships, influences, missteps and triumphs of the formative years of LeBron James. It covers much the … Continue reading →

It’s important to know when to “drop the mike.” Know when to say “when,” don’t spoil a peak moment by trying to top it, and don’t clutter up your finale so badly it spoils the effect of the stand-up set, … Continue reading →

A teenage girl gives in to her hormones and to tempation and faces the fundamentalist consquences in “The Starling Girl,” an evocative, gripping and revealing drama about a strict upbringing and how it can backfire on the person being groomed. … Continue reading →

Well, children aren’t watching these guys any more, are they? So why not throw Seth Rogen and his partner in the profane Evan Goldberg at this material. Because there’s just not enough “dark” and edgy fanboy content in the movies … Continue reading →

Sony’s effort to wholly blur the line between “comic book” and “comic book movie” comes to something like full fruition with “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” a mad cinematic jumble of comic book imagery, comic book mimicry, multiverse plotting and ponderous, … Continue reading →

This may start on time. Or not. Apparently, 24 locals somehow went to the wrong theater. “Tampa” in a nutshell.