Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Sure, another blockbuster weekend for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is here. Over $140 million, based on Christmas Day/Friday numbers. But the shocker has to be the staying power of Will Ferrell.  “Daddy’s Home” smelled like a hit. Not with … Continue reading →

All those silly film critics, whipping out their Top Ten Lists without first catching “Point Break.” How COULD they? Call it a hunch. But after a year of blockbuster rehashes masquerading as “sequels”,  here at last is a remake that … Continue reading →

Many of us wonder about exactly who gave Quentin Tarantino the license to use the word that, historically (and often hysterically–as in comic) no black person gives any white person permission to use. Axel Rose? Not permitted. Michael Richards? Ditto. … Continue reading →

An unsettling dread hangs over the boys of “Yosemite,” a character study built around a couple of interconnected James Franco short stories from his book, “Palo Alto.” Boys talking about death. News reports (set in the early ’80s?) mentioning, about … Continue reading →

In Los Angeles, even the homeless are better looking than we could ever hope to be. With better hair and makeup, too. So that’s a comfort. I guess. “Other People’s Children” is an indie drama featuring a bunch of quite … Continue reading →

You can see the logic here in Scott Eastwood’s mind. Or his agent’s. “Dad broke through in Westerns. Why don’t I do a Western?” Thus, “Diablo,” a violent and grimly obvious frontier thriller that Clint Eastwood might have made during … Continue reading →

Any fan of cinema has to have a passing knowledge of the German movies of the Weimar Era. That’s the democratic respite between the autocratic horrors of Imperial Germany, broken by World War I, and the rise of National Socialism … Continue reading →

Equal parts damning and infuriating, “Concussion” can be appreciated for being that rare movie that takes on the business/game that has utterly swallowed American sport. Here is a film that goes after the National Football League, that shows game footage … Continue reading →

Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell go at it again in “Daddy’s Home,” a bio-dad vs. stepdad romp that rarely romps, despite the considerable comic chops of the two leads. Ferrell is the hovering, nurturing step dad to two tykes whose … Continue reading →

An epic poem carved in flesh and written in blood, “The Revenant” is the American frontier myth as it really was — venal and brutish, murderous and vengeful. It makes for a great film, an American classic and one of … Continue reading →