Monthly Archives: July 2023

Netflixable? “Bird Box: Barcelona” brings Blind Faith in as a Subtext

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

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“Sound of Freedom” — the Gift to Crackpots that Keeps on Giving

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

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Movie Review: A Colorfully Grim Depiction of Life on the Rez — “War Pony”

“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

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Movie Review: “The Lesson” gets lost in the lesson plan

“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

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Movie Review: More Sad than Desperate, “The Miracle Club” travels to Lourdes

“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

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Documentary Review: Black and Trans, or Trans-attracted — “Kokomo City” street life

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

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Movie Preview: Temuera Morrison and Isabel Lucas star in a Down Under surfing thriller, “Sons of Summer”

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

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Movie Review: A brooding, self-absorbed writer looks up to find his world “Afire”

Leon talks a good game. He’s come to the summer house of a friend, in the forest set back from the sea, to “work.” He has “a manuscript” and a “deadline.” The friend — Felix — wants to dash off … Continue reading

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Today’s DVD Donation? “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” Maitland, Fla?

I really enjoyed this moody Chinese film noir about an inmate remembering why he’s in prison. “Spare, dark and gritty,” an award winner at Cannes, this Film Movement release deserves a bigger audience. Now the good folks of Maitland, Florida … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: Matthau and Glenda evade Beatty, Waterston and Herbert Lom in a little game of “Hopscotch” (1980)

The first time I heard that Britishism disguised by the clever British acronym “Cee YoU Next Tuesday” was right around the first of October, 1980. And because it came out of the plummy, posh Oscar-winning mouth of the late Glenda … Continue reading

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