Monthly Archives: July 2023

One can think one has a handle on all every cheese-making nook and cranny of Europe, and then something like “Operation Napoleon” rolls in and makes you realize “Iceland can be cheesy, too!” “Operation Napoleon” a lumbering B-movie about a … Continue reading →

This looks real-world gritty, a side of French life not often captured on film. August 11, we sample what it’s like to live “Between Two Worlds.”

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of “true events” that this B-movie was “inspired” by. An integrated Marine unit fighting the Japanese in 1942? The heck you say? August 11.

The second film Neflix has made out of Josh Malerman’s dystopian thriller novel “Bird Box” has two veterans of the viral/zombie thriller genre, the Spanish Pastor brothers (“Carriers”), behind the camera, and not the Emmy winning Danish director Susanne Bier, … Continue reading →

There’s always movie money to be made by pandering to a particular audience, be it comic book and sci-fi fanboys and fangirls, foodies, this under-represented race or that disrespected cult. Back when it was called 20th Century Fox, somebody thought … Continue reading →

“War Pony” is a compelling, wholly-lived-in drama that tracks the dead-end lives of two aimless young males of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and Nebraska. We follow immature-even-for-19 Bill and tweenage Matho as they navigate their opportunity-deprived … Continue reading →

“The Lesson” is a writerly thriller that spends the better part of its first hour trying to convince you it’s not “Deathtrap Lite,” no matter how many times its author-antagonist insists “Good writers ‘borrow,’ great writers STEAL.” And then the … Continue reading →

“The Miracle Club” is a downbeat Irish Catholic character study in a minor key, a period piece about the tragedy, desperation and simple superstition that sends the faithful to the French shrine at Lourdes in search of “the cure.” What … Continue reading →

Friend, if you can’t get an entertaining documentary built around defiant, defensive, sassy and verbose Black transgender sex-workers, you’re talking to the WRONG Black transgender sex workers. Transgender filmmaker D. Smith finds a fascinating subjects to profile in New York, … Continue reading →

Shades of “Point Break,” mate. Looks solid and salty. July 28.