Monthly Archives: August 2024

Naomie Ackie, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment and Alia Shawkat also star in this “billionaire’s island” nightmare from actress turned writer-director Zoë K. August 23.

“House of Ga’a” is a sweeping historical epic from Nigeria, a tale of backstabbing and poisoning intrigues, lust, brutality and greed set just before the events depicted in the West Africa of “The Woman King.” There’s a universality to this … Continue reading →

“Great Absence,” the festival-feted “breakout film” of director and co-writer Kei Chika-ura, is a somber, obscure mystery about memory, regret and entropy. It’s centered on a son trying to learn what his long-estranged father was really like before dementia took … Continue reading →

Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson play the parents, distraught yet never giving up hope in this thriller. But when that daughter (Erin Doherty)  shows up, there are “so many questions.” A Sept. 13 UK opening is set for this one, … Continue reading →

Twenty years since its release, it’s fair to call Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” a classic, and even fairer to label this vintage dramedy a film that changed the culture — a couple of cultures. It made Paul Giamatti a star and … Continue reading →

Mark Strong and Mekhi Pfifer co-star in this thriller about a hearing-impaired detective/interpreter who figures out the cops are trying to silence a deaf witness to a crime. The most promising thing about it is that Brad Anderson directed it. … Continue reading →

No other big names in the cast of this “That AI you have looks like Megan Fox” thriller. Sexy? Yes. But will this AI be bad right out of the box? Bet on it. “Subservience” opens Sept. 13.

An expertly shot and edited thriller built around a cringey/creepy performance by Josh Hartnett is undone by an indulgent father trying to make a pop starlet/actress out of his daughter in “Trap,” the latest from M. Night Shyamalan. Mr. Suspense-with-a-Twist … Continue reading →

The diplomatic thing to do would be to say the new film of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” is misguided, dull and mostly humorless and leave it at that. It’s harmless enough, which is the bare minimum parents expect from … Continue reading →

I laughed more than once at the jaunty Taiwanese action farce “Breaking and Re-Entering.” It’s a jokey, violent and lighthearted collection of heist movie cliches rendered in caper comedy form. Certainly it’s an overreach when a character in this tale … Continue reading →