Monthly Archives: May 2023

A lot of thrillers are undone by my least favorite convention of the genre — over-explaining. When this happens in a horror movie, one that traffics in the supernatural, it just seems worse. Yeah, that thing that the natural world … Continue reading →

A cluster of sea forts await relief or the enemy in a future war. This sci fi thriller also stars Lucien Laviscount and Thomas Kretschman. “Last Sentinel” comes out June 2.

“Gringa” is an intensely likeable coming-of-age dramedy trapped in an over-reaching screenplay, an entirely-too-tidy tale that works best when it’s unkempt, scruffy and a bit crumpled. It’s built on a winning performance by Jess Gabor of TV’s “Shameless,” and features … Continue reading →

I’m guessing this could be OK, a sort of “S#*t My Italian-American Dad Says and Does,” starring DeNiro and co-starring the comic Sebastian Maniscalco, who was in “Somewhere in Queens” and “Spinning Gold” recently. It’s sort of semi-autobiographical, I guess? … Continue reading →

One way you judge classic movies is by the parts that stick with you. By that measure, I’ve long regarded “Patton” as something of a mirage, a war movie about a personality and a larger than life actor who won … Continue reading →

Imagine The Three Stooges cast in a Monty Python movie with a Marvel budget. That’s “Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom,” a pricey, large-scale, seriously-silly slapstick farce from our wine-swilling/snail-eating friends across the pond. It’s utterly ahistorical and pretty danged … Continue reading →

Years ago, a troubled Chilean woman strapped her legs onto her motorbike and drove it into the Rio Cruces. Now, as the river suffers through another man-made fish kill, as the bees are dying off and environmental protests spread, she … Continue reading →

Letitia Wright faces off with Jeffrey Donovan and Jamie Bell in this post-Civil War Western. The last film of Michael Kenneth Williams looks worth tracking down when it comes out in June.

What’s the difference between a Polish exorcism movie, and every other exorcism movie you’ve ever seen? In Poland, the priests and monks summon Satan so’s he can take over and begin his cloven-hoofed reign. “Hellhole” is a Polish exorcism thriller … Continue reading →

Actor (“Little Women,” “Rifkin’s Festival”) and sometime director (“A Faithful Man”) Louis Garrel manages some seriously deft misdirections in his droll, dark comedy “L’Innocent” (“The Innocent”). It’s a tale of love and grief, guilt and prison and ACTING, all folded … Continue reading →