Monthly Archives: December 2023

My favorite Neil Simon play is probably “God’s Favorite,” a broad comic riff on a man tested by God…and an obnoxious family. It’s based on the Biblical “Book of Job.” “The Shift” is a big screen sci-fi spin on that … Continue reading →

The weekend after Thanksgiving is “traditionally” one in which no major new titles are rolled into theaters, the box office falls way off because filmgoers did all their movie watching over the holidays. Yadda yadda yadda… Not this year. Lots … Continue reading →

The puzzle has many solutions, most or even all of them “wrong.” We’re asked to weigh abuse and bullying, gossip, guilt, grief and pathology, all told via five different points of view. And whatever the viewer decides, on the screen … Continue reading →

A groaning 110 minutes of agenda in search of a laugh, “Lady Ballers” is an “anti-woke” transphobic comedy from the conservative media site Daily Wire. An impotent exercise in attempted “punching down” at the groups hate groups love to hate, … Continue reading →

Well, God and Gromit bless Netflix for signing checks and putting Aardman Animations on the task of serving up fresh stop-motion animated whimsy for us all. But “fresh” doesn’t really figure in their laugh-starved, half-hearted sequel to 2000’s “Chicken Run.” … Continue reading →

We’ve all seen the ads that litter broadcast TV, law firms pleading for potential clients to come forward and join class action lawsuits against Big Pharma, Big Investment, Big Credit Card, Big Chemicals and about the “water” at Camp LeJeune. … Continue reading →

Lurid and tacky enough to be ripped from real (American) life and packaged and scored right up to the edge of campy soap opera, Todd Hayne’s “May December” has that air of sexual transgression that has characterized his most memorable … Continue reading →

If nothing else, streaming has provided a welcoming home to a lot of holiday films in recent years, with movies ranging from bad to Hall Mark Christmas romance mediocre typically skipping theaters altogether. Cramming these seasonal-shelf-life pictures in theaters makes … Continue reading →

Hannah Arrendt’s famous phrase “The Banality of Evil,” gets beaten to death by anyone trying to describe the ordinary folk who commit extraordinary crimes, be they fictional villains or political, military or historically genocidal figures who shock the world both … Continue reading →

Action auteur John Woo returns to the sort of gangland tale that made him for “Silent Night,” a holiday shoot-em-up with a pun for its title. A month or so back, David Fincher made a hit-man thriller that was so … Continue reading →