Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

“Rudderless” is a tragic quasi-musical that never quite finds its way. It drifts through a lot of tunes, some big name cameos, a big twist that you won’t swallow and a central relationship that is cute but trite and not … Continue reading →

“Housebound” is a nasty and laugh-out-loud horror comedy from New Zealand. Writer-director Gerard Johnstone has concocted a deadpan Kiwi haunted house farce where the blood spatters and the jokes zing, all the way through its long, drawn-out finale. Kylie (Morgana … Continue reading →

J.K. Simmons? He’s that cuddly character actor, right? You know, loving father to “Juno,” gruff but amusing boss in “Spider-Man” and “The Closer.” Heck, he’s the folksy voice of Farmer’s Insurance on TV! But after the new film “Whiplash,” you … Continue reading →

I had higher hopes for this when I first heard of “Tomorrowland.” Chatted with director Brad Bird about it, briefly, a couple of years back. A more grown up fantasy film with sci-fi elements, Disney lineage and George Clooney. This … Continue reading →

So here’s a big, broad academy-set satire of race relations in America, a “Do the Right Thing” meets “School Daze,” for those who speak Spike. Could be funny. Doesn’t look subtle.  Timely as all get out.  

“Birdman” is Michael Keaton’s comeback, the one sure thing in what was supposed to be a Year Long Michael Keaton comeback. That Aaron Paul race-across-America movie didn’t deliver, but “Birdman” is an Oscar nomination, possibly an Oscar win, for the … Continue reading →

We only hear about them if there’s video or audio — coaches, mostly — a Bobby Knight, grabbing and choking players, a Mike Rice, hurling basketballs and the foulest abuse at a recruit. We hear the rationalizations, shake our heads … Continue reading →

Whatever else children take from Judith Viorst’s delightful “Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day,” the sly subtext this picture-heavy book is how exhausting and sometimes misguided the optimism of the eternally optimistic can be. Parents who … Continue reading →

So it wasn’t the rains that kept the Turks from getting their cannons to Vienna, seizing the city and ending Western Civilization in the late 15th/early 16th centuries. It was Prince Vlad, hero of the Transylvanians, a misunderstood warrior with … Continue reading →