Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Of course it didn’t happen this way. Not exactly. Not even remotely. “A Royal Night Out,” about VE-Day, 1945, when the two British princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, slipped out of Buckingham Palace, “incognito,” and experienced the greatest celebration London had … Continue reading →

Mother Teresa was still just Sister Teresa, a Catholic school teacher and head mistress in Calcutta, when she took on her “call within a calling.” She resolved to stop teaching girls from privileged families and teach the poorest of the … Continue reading →

A 52%+ fall-off on its second weekend isn’t enough to keep “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” from winning another weekend at the box office. It should manage upper $40s, when the weekend is tallied, about $70 since Wed., when the … Continue reading →

Viewers in the indie film loop will recognize “The Wannabe,” actor-turned-director Nick Sandow’s new mob drama, as telling the same story as the dizzier, sexier “Rob the Mob.” Both are based on the life of Tommy Uva, a delusional young … Continue reading →

At the very beginning of my professional reviewing career, I joked that Sly Stallone needed to finish up this “Rocky” series now — before “Rocky IV” became “Rocky Needs an I.V.” And damned if that wasn’t prophetic. It’s amazing how … Continue reading →

A father’s encouragement to his late-blooming son lies at the heart of Pixar’s “The Good Dinosaur.” “You’re me, and more,” Daddy dinosaur (the voice of Jeffrey Wright) tells his chicken-livered offspring, Arlo (Raymond Ochoa). Arlo, we know, will have to … Continue reading →

Dry as a martini and as perfectly composed as a Christmas card, “Carol” is is the gay “Far From Heaven,” if that’s not redundant, another tale of “forbidden love” amid the polished Packards and crisp fashion lines of the 1950s. … Continue reading →

“You know this story,” the sidekick soon-to-be-known as Igor narrates. Lightning, corpses, “a mad genius.” But what if you didn’t? You know, “know the story”? “Victor Frankenstein” is a madcap mashup of three stories — at least as they’re traditionally … Continue reading →

“Brooklyn” is a sentimental Irish immigrant melodrama that’s in many ways every bit as generic as its title. A young Irish woman “with nothing FOR me” over there, comes over here. There’s a weepy mum and sister in Ireland, a … Continue reading →

You won’t find The Barkley’s Marathons listed online in any of those Outside/Outside Times magazine compilations of the “world’s toughest ultramarathons.” It isn’t held in the Moroccan desert, above the Arctic Circle or in Death Valley. There’s no “Canyon to … Continue reading →