Monthly Archives: May 2023

The Wayans family made bank with the spoofy-goofy “Scary Movies” franchise and the “Haunted House” spoofs that bubbled up when those ran their course. Jordan Peele and “Get Out” came along and raised the bar, embracing some horror conventions but … Continue reading →

This looks handsomely mounted, inventively cast.

It was, in hindsight, probably a mistake to try and send off “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” at the Cannes Film Festival. It was also a mistake for Lucasfilm to migrate the entirety of this franchise from Paramount … Continue reading →

Low stakes, low key, low lighting and generally low energy, there’s not much to recommend the Indonesian Around the World with Netflix offering “Arini by Love, inc.” Yes it’s quite short, by Western feature film standards. But not a lot … Continue reading →

“There was a little girl, Who had a little curl, Right in the middle of her forehead.  “When she was good, She was very good indeed, But when she was bad she was horrid.” But giving her a sequel, the … Continue reading →

This one opens June 2, and will be wrestling for the horror title with “The Blackening” for much of its run.

Iconic novel, mutli-Oscar-nominated film by Spielberg, Whoopi and Danny Glover and Oprah and yet not widely-accepted Alice Walker adaptation when it came out back in the ’80s. So let’s take another shot. Is that the new Little Mermaid in this … Continue reading →

“A Hole in the Fence” is an allegorical rendition of how the “elites” get to stay that way, generation after generation. It’s not just money which buys politicians who rewrite tax laws protecting extreme wealth. There’s a veritable cradle-to-the-grave infrastructure … Continue reading →

The Argentine farce “The Lulu Club,” titled “Papa’ al Rescate (Dad to the Rescue)” in South America, is a road trip farce that kind of gives up on the farce at the midway point. Because nothing actually funny has happened … Continue reading →

Some years back, I polled actors, filmmakers and critics for a column I was writing about “a movie that made you cry.” And a couple of people took me aback when they mentioned “The Little Mermaid.” But they were old … Continue reading →