Monthly Archives: January 2024

“Good Grief” is Dan Levy’s delicate and arms-length drift through the psychology of mourning, with that grief complicated by post mortem secrets that emerge about the deceased. It’s a featherweight attempt at the gutting, deflated feeling of loss, with clever … Continue reading →

“The Book of Clarence” is no mere lampoon of the belief system based on a persecution, blood sacrifice and murder by the state origin story. It’s a retelling, resetting and often amusing examination of “knowledge” vs. “faith,” the nobility of … Continue reading →

“Roadkill” is a leaden, lumbering C-movie about serial killings on the backroads of Florida back in the ’80s. For his second feature, writer, director and co-star Warren Fast (“Finding Grace”) reaches back for a “drive in” era motors-and-murders thriller about … Continue reading →

“Semi animated,” this irreverent “interview” show has a whiff of the old “Colbert Report” as well in its ideological dope asking idiotic questions. This time, the animated host (shades of “Space Ghost from Coast to Coast” and “Fetch”) is an … Continue reading →

It stands to reason that a movie about a haunted pool swallowing children and adults would absolutely have to have extraordinary underwater photography, just by design. “Night Swim” manages that, so a tip of the scuba mask to underwater director … Continue reading →

“Stroking an Animal” is a dull, pretentious Catalan “four seasons with a polyamorous threesome” melodama in which not a lot happens. Well, not a lot that involves people with their clothes on. Pointing itself at the “obvious” flaws in such … Continue reading →

The director of “The Harder They Fall” Western is behind the camera for this riff on a contemporary of Jesus “inspired” to live a “divine” life, or fake it until he makes it. LaKeith Stanfield stars, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre … Continue reading →

A serial killer is on the loose, murdering “foreign workers” in Taiwan. Let’s put our best detective on the case! You know, the one we meet just as she’s attempting to commit suicide in the same car where her partner/lover … Continue reading →

Every now and then, some piece of music turns up in a (horror movie, usually) that makes me do a double take, or if I’m imbibing, a spit take. How did (whoever the music supervisor/the star/the director) they pull that … Continue reading →

One’s first new film of the new year, even when it’s previewing in the “Pre stained for your comfort” local AMC, gives one a warm feeling. Or perhaps that’s the AMC nachos talking. “Night Swim” opens Thursday, it’s previewing on … Continue reading →