Monthly Archives: January 2023

You didn’t have to grow up in the ’70s, travel to America’s major cities back then to know what the decade looked like. And that was largely due to films lit and photographed by Owen Roizman. The director of photography … Continue reading →

Egyptian action auteur Peter Mimi is no stranger to Hollywood blockbusters. You don’t have read or watch interviews with him to have that confirmed. It’s right there on the screen. The latest from the director of “No Surrender” is a … Continue reading →

You’re going to have to trust me on this. Espionage thrillers are my jam, for obvious reasons. And “escape” narratives — in books or in films — have been a passion since I was old enough to read “Who Goes … Continue reading →

Universal/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster’s killer-doll thriller “M3GAN” is in the process of premiering in the top tier of where horror movies typically land on opening weekend — a $26-28 million dollar rollout on the always-sleepy first weekend of January. Nothing of note … Continue reading →

For a while, at least, I was thinking somebody dropped the ball with this domestic horror “comedy” “Who Invited Them.” “This is good enough to have played in theaters,” I said to myself, noting how a good cast does well … Continue reading →

A French diplomat faces State Security skullduggery in 2017 Siberia. Looks flinty and nerve wracking. A Jan 20 release from Magnet/Mangolia

Every movie set during the Holocaust has some merit, especially those based on historical accounts of survivors. Anyone who lived through that needs to be celebrated, and those who didn’t must be remembered. But not all concentration camp dramas are … Continue reading →

This Jan 27 B-movie release has a battle-tested villain, Arnold Vosloo, with Jacob Keohane as the lead, and Jackson Rathbone, Michael Ironside, Bruce Davison and Jorge Garcia in the supporting cast. And it features James Urbaniak as…HIMMLER? Now we’re getting … Continue reading →

P.T. Barnum was 60 when he first took his “emporium,” oddities exhibition and giant circus on the road in 1870. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody and his “Wild West Show,” with its cast of several hundred people, hundreds of horses and … Continue reading →

Homeless teens leave the mean streets of Medellin for the promise of a far-off plot of land in “The Kings of the World,” director and co-writer Laura Mora Ortega’s dark, picaresque odyssey through Colombia’s half-abandoned interior. It’s a dreamlike journey … Continue reading →