Monthly Archives: August 2023

“Jules” is a bland comedy about aging and an alien, of little consequence save for its impressive and whimsically-engaged cast. Oscar winner Ben Kingsley, Emmy winner Jane Curtin and always-amusing Emmy nominee Harriet Sansom Harris take their shot at this … Continue reading →

A French best seller about “making the invisible visible” among that country’s under-employed and over-worked “gig economy” cleaning crews becomes a sentimental, occasionally-moving melodrama built around Juliette Binoche, playing a well-known writer/researcher undercover among those crews, trapped “Between Two Worlds.” … Continue reading →

Daisy Ridley and Oscar winner Marion Cotillard also provide voices for this multi-animation style whimsy, coming to theaters Aug.25. Considering the middling kids’ fare this past summer, that’s a nice counter- programming move.

When it comes to comedy, “tone” counts for a lot. So hats off– OK, Keffiyehs off — to director Malik Nejer, screenwriter Abdulaziz Al Muzaini and their cast for going for “goofy” with “Head to Head,” that rarest of rare … Continue reading →

Elizabeth Falkner was a jet-setting, TV-friendly chef and “food personality” at work on a documentary project of some sort when the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. She recognized the calamity unfolding around her, and also admits to being triggered by … Continue reading →

Skip past the odd lapses in logic and boil down the new “version” the of river-rafting-with-a-murderer plot titled “River Wild” to its basics. It’s a thriller. Does it provide thrills? Does it serve up a surprise or two? Does it … Continue reading →

“Mickey Hardaway” is a well-intentioned, slow-moving indie drama about a sensitive young man’s hard upbringing and the consequences of all the blows he’s taken along life’s way. It’s your standard-issue “film festival movie” — indie, an unknown cast shot mostly … Continue reading →

Veteran character actor Louis Mandylor and a bunch of similarly-seasoned friends took off for Thailand to play at war in “3 Days in Malay,” an almost comically ahistorical, geographically-and-everything else inept version of the epic Guadalcanal Campaign. A hellish struggle … Continue reading →

A wistful Japanese drama from Kôji Fukada touches on the fragile nature of relationships and the struggle to do right by people. Something like that. An Aug. 11 release from our hip friends at Oscilloscope Laboratories, so you know I’m … Continue reading →

Maybe the most famous apology Mel Gibson ever made — “famous” because he’s not known for apologizing — was for a film he produced and starred in directed by the legendary Wim Wenders, of “Wings of Desire” and “Paris, Texas,” … Continue reading →