Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

“Dead Envy” is a micro-budget indie thriller that doesn’t give away its credit-card financing. Slick, musical and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, Harley Di Nardo’s “make work for myself” project limits its settings, situations and run time to pull off a minor … Continue reading →

Netflix’s full court press into teen romantic comedies raises its won-loss percentage with “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” a well-cast, well-acted charmer from the director of “Carrie Pilby.” No, me neither, but Susan Johnson ensures this adaptation of … Continue reading →

Ike Barinholtz wrote, directed and co-stars in this “ruin Thanksgiving by talking politics with your Trumpist relatives” farce. “The Oath” has a good cast, some chuckles in the trailer, but nobody will see it. It’s with dirt-merchants Roadside Attractions, so … Continue reading →

With Hollywood largely abandoning that most distinctly America film genre, The Western, it’s encouraging that independent filmmakers and start-up studios are at least trying to revive it. But getting one to come off — the looks, sounds and feel of … Continue reading →

One of my gripes in recent years has been how the major studios have shied away from working with established directors. They’ve treated people of talent and accomplishment as dispensable, an expense they don’t need. Filmmakers find their ability to … Continue reading →

  Married too young, TV gig falls into her lap, a first year of marriage dramedy like “Paper Year” makes it all look too easy, with the “obstacles” kind of artificially inserted. “You ever feel that sometimes everything is just…hard?” … Continue reading →

I could totally see the former “Robin Sparkles” as a Chrissie Hynde type, breaking big decades ago, breaking up the band, going to school, still a bit of a hell raiser. Not sure if “Alright Now,” picked up by Gravitas … Continue reading →

“The Last Detail,” “Shampoo,” “Coming Home,” “Bound for Glory,” “Harold and Maude” and being there — Hal Ashby was every bit as important to film in the ’70s as Scorsese and Allen, Altman and Coppola. He was, as those testifying … Continue reading →

A novel milieu and an understated turn by Jack Jovcic, playing a mobster turned priest, give the otherwise dour Australian drama “Hidden Light” a fighting chance. Writer-director Aaron Kamp set his story in the Serbian Orthodox community of Perth, Australia, … Continue reading →

So we’ve got this faux ’50s Italian-American greaser (Spencer Boldman) who swipes cars and car radios on 1980s Long Island, and this Jewish Girl Who Wants to be Bad (Emily Ratajkowski) who takes a tumble with him over the course … Continue reading →