Monthly Archives: February 2024

“The Peasants” is a film based on a village life melodrama of the same title written by the Pole Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont in four massive volumes in the 1920s. Even the fact that Reymont won the Nobel Prize for literature … Continue reading →

The cinema of Stanley Kramer is marked by movies that touched, directly or indirectly, matters of great social import and social justice. Race and racism messages were carried in “The Defiant Ones” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” The perils … Continue reading →

This weekend at the movies is the calm before the “Dune” sandstorm. “Dune: Part 2” is coming March 1, and will bury every film released this year in a sandstorm of ticket sales. Pre-release reviews have been raptorous, even (up … Continue reading →

Mother Frances Cabrini was an Italian born nun whose advocacy of charity through her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which built schools, hospitals and orphanages all over the world and led to her being canonized as the … Continue reading →

“Mea Culpa” is the most over-the-top, lurid and hyper-sexualized soap opera Tyler Perry has ever served up. Sure, it’s a thriller, and by the pull-out-all-the-stops finale, it acts like it. But soapy, turgid trash is one of the guy’s brands … Continue reading →

One Coen Brother is either not enough, or one too many. If it’s the wrong Coen. Oh brother. That’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” a crude, clunky and carnal romp that runs bits and pieces of “Raising Arizona,” “Fargo” and “Burn Before Reading” … Continue reading →

“Ordinary Angels” is a kind-hearted weeper that gets by on good vibes and the talents of the Unsinkable Hilary Swank. Based on a true story, it’s a faith-based film about what people can do when they act out of compassion, … Continue reading →

Talk about your cinematic hot potatoes. “Club Zero” is a drama played out in the soft-spoken tones of self-help speak, a satire on the indulged habits of indulged children of the indulgent rich. It’s about food and the swirl of … Continue reading →

Enigmatic and obscurant, a film noir bathed in gloom and dreams within dreams, its “story” carried by voice-over narration, “The Possessed” is an Italian murder mystery all but conceived as a “cult picture.” It had multiple titles — “La donna … Continue reading →

The great Joanna Lumley adds another blowsy, foul-mouthed grump to the often hilarious third act of her career as she steals the operatic comedy “Falling for Figaro.” But thanks to the atonal script and flat performances around her, that never … Continue reading →