Monthly Archives: September 2023

An oddly-dated, obvious and overwrought melodrama about gender roles and the toxic masculinity of Wall Street hedge funders, “Fair Play” is practically a parody of decades of women in the workplace romantic thrillers. It’s got Phoebe Dynevor of the sexy … Continue reading →

“Cutesie” does battle with “sentimental” in the feather-light romance “Love at First Sight,” basically a Netflix-financed 90 minutge excuse to pair up Haley Lu Richardson with Ben Hardy and have them lose each other in rainy, wintry London. It’s a … Continue reading →

Asante Blackk plays an artist of the Bronx streets who might find a more productive outlet for his efforts thanks to a stranger. Luis Guzman has been one of the finest character actors of his generation, and it’s always nice … Continue reading →

Context is everything when it comes to “political thrillers,” especially “controversial” ones. “The Prisoner” is a war-of-wills tale set and filmed in the early days of The Cold War. Lauded by the British Film Academy (BAFTAs), banned at Cannes and … Continue reading →

It probably wasn’t on New Zealand journalist and filmmaker David Farrier’s mind as he tumbled into a story about narcississtic Kiwi name-caller, pathological liar and “in his own reality” con man named “Mister Organ” that he might have an American … Continue reading →

Smaller distributor, as is Nic Cage’s lot these days. Looks existential and dark and prophetic.

Imagine popping into a multiplex and diving into say, an “Avengers” or “Star Wars” movie. Imagine doing that in Papua-New Guinea or some place far removed from the “universes,” cultural tropes and long-beloved characters in those films and not having … Continue reading →

This Oct 3 release is about a couple of old farm coots and coping an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease. It looks a little lighter than that sounds.

Some decades back, I interviewed the great Texas writer Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove,” “The Last Picture Show”) at a cocktail party thrown in his honor at the University of North Dakota’s Writers Conference, which that year was focused on Western … Continue reading →