Monthly Archives: April 2023

Ken Loach is Britain’s great social justice filmmaker, a chronicler of labor struggles and Irish uprisings and working class folks just trying to survive every fresh assault on their way of life. Films like “Kes” and “Land and Freedom” and … Continue reading →

Amelia had a pretty good time on her 18th birthday. Popular and beautiful, with a whiff of lazy mean girl about her, she drank and danced and shunned those nerdy “drama kids” like everybody else. But something happens on 40th … Continue reading →

What else is there to say about “Say Anything,” the era-defining, hopelessly-romantic teen rom-dramedy that launched Cameron Crowe as a Grand Romantic Gesture filmmaker and John Cusack as a leading man? Sitting through it the other night for perhaps the … Continue reading →

The filmmaker behind that holiday splatter Santa favorite, “Rare Exports” is back, serving up a Finnish revenge Western set during the last year of World War II in “Sisu,” a tale of gold, Nazis and the guy who kills them … Continue reading →

The Lee Cronin-directed/Sam Raimi-produced reboot of his “Evil Dead” franchise has a brisk Thursday night and Friday and looks to be the biggest horror hit of the spring, outperforming “Renfield,” “The Pope’s Exorcist” and most other comers with a $20 … Continue reading →

A fun, adoring crowd throwing a few sharp questions his way and a lot of that good old John Cusack charm made last night’s “An Evening with John Cusack” at The 32nd Florida Film Festival a real treat. Like many … Continue reading →

A tale of tolerance and “kindness” in the face of fascism and hate, “in dark times.”

Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid” is an inscrutable thriller scripted and directed with the confidence of a filmmaker whose “Hereditary” and “Midsommer” upped the intellectual ante on modern horror, but edited with the audacity of a Next Big Thing who’s … Continue reading →

There are some genuine frights amid the gruesome, gory, eyes-averting horror of “Evil Dead Rise,” a reboot of/homage to the franchise that made Sam Raimi and his muse, Bruce Campbell, famous. Writer-director Lee Cronin pays tribute to that franchise with … Continue reading →

All things considered, Ray Romano’s “Somewhere in Queens” is a pretty watchable dramedy despite all the “lows” that hang over it. It’s low-heat and downbeat, with low stakes and low ambition. The situations are low on originality and the jokes … Continue reading →