Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

“Phoenix” is a dark romantic melodrama about the Holocaust, an intimate study of guilt — survivor’s guilt, and survive-at-all costs guilt. Nelly (Nina Hoss) survived the death camps — barely. She only returns to Germany after reconstructive surgery to repair … Continue reading →

OK, that’s an exaggeration. Nobody figured a movie about a whale would make a fortune. But as things stand now, a fictionalized film version of a non-fiction best seller about the true story that inspired “Moby Dick” may take down … Continue reading →

Did they widen the Oscar field, or shrink it? What the Screen Actors Guild taketh away, the Golden Globes returned to “It’s still got a shot at the Oscar.” Right? That’s the true purpose of the Golden Globes nominations. Yesterday, … Continue reading →

So. The Screen Actor’s Guild Award nominations for 2015 are out. Takeaway one — “I Smiled Back” (the Sarah Silverman nomination) and “Beasts of No Nation” suggest that SOME folks just sorta stayed at home and watched whatever was on … Continue reading →

“In the Heart of the Sea” is a tale of whales and wooden ships and the flawed flesh-and-blood men who hunted them. Nathaniel Philbrick’s best-seller about the true story that inspired “Moby Dick” becomes a solid, beautifully-detailed but conventional screen … Continue reading →

Tom Hardy manages the brilliant trick of playing two physically, emotionally and intellectually distinct mobster brothers in “Legend,” a new film about Britain’s Swinging ’60s and the thugs who bloodied them up. They are played in different shades of brutality, … Continue reading →

“Krampus” is a holiday horror farce that teeters on the uneasy middle ground between “Gremlins” and the Finnish Santa-as-Monster movie “Rare Exports.” Not that funny, not that scary, it falls somewhere between “Oh, why not?” and “Oh, why bother?” It’s … Continue reading →

A scattering of early Awards Season honors have made “Spotlight” the picture to beat, and an early Oscar favorite. “Mad Max: Fury Road” has traction, and honors are landing on George Miller as director, an overdue honor for the guy … Continue reading →

“Chi-Raq” is Spike Lee’s most audacious film in decades. DECADES. It’s as if he ignored everything after “Do the Right Thing,” which included a few very good films, a few mediocre ones and some dreadful “Spike is DONE” outings, and … Continue reading →

Say what you will about Hollywood espionage thrillers, the Brits have them all beat when it comes to emphasizing politics over geopolitics. It seems they never quite got over Tony Blair’s embrace of George W. Bush’s war. Thus, “maintaining our … Continue reading →