Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Getting your first feature film finished and released is a cause for celebration. It’s a Herculean task involving training or on-the-set-experience, finance, casting, locations and hiring a crew. Most first-time feature filmmakers don’t get this far. And many of those … Continue reading →

The new Chris Pratt thriller “Mercy” is managing respectable money on its opening weekend. Nothing special, but adecent Thursday night and Friday should push it over $12, close to $13 million, enough to FINALLY take “Avatar: Fire & Ash” off … Continue reading →

In the dark of night, a child is taken from her bedroom right in front of her younger sister. She lived to describe her ordeal and the years it took to brng her kidnapper to justice. Near misses, moments when … Continue reading →

We remember the boy. Going on seventy years since “The 400 Blows” arrived on screens, one is still hard-pressed to think of a better performance by a child in a film. James Dean and Jean-Paul Belmondo defined “rebellious youth” on … Continue reading →

Amazon tacked the incorrect release date (2024) onto this scurvy dog (2017) which is why I watched it. That, and the sailboating subject matter. There’s not much to recommend “The Boat Builder” beyond Christopher Lloyd almost colorfully playing a widowed … Continue reading →

The title of the touring exhibition “Giants,” featuring works by Gordon Parks and Jean-Michel Basquit, is a pun. The musical power couple Alicia Keyes and Swizz Beatz have collected works by those familiar names in art history — “Giants.” And, … Continue reading →

Actors have an old saying. If you’re not getting work, create work for yourself. Career bit player Alexi Wasser takes that advice with “Messy,” a comedy about a single thirtysomething sexing her way through many Mister Wrongs in a hunt … Continue reading →

“The Rip” starts out bloody and gets bloodier. The dirty cops and drug money plot is messy. And turns messier. It hits “preachy” hard, and then becomes even preachier. The copshop cliches, quips and acronyms pass by in a blizzard … Continue reading →

Artists who make their mark on the world are the ones who dare to experiment, who take big chances in the belief that they can show us something new. Werner Herzog’s “Heart of Glass” was such an experiment, a hypnotic … Continue reading →

Every year or so I am moved — by WordPress’s lack of movement to fix glitches or eagerness to make an almost unending series of changes for the worse — to point out this Automatic blog provider’s unsuitability, if you’re … Continue reading →