Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

“Straight Outta Compton” had a week of blowback — women coming forward to complain about the misogyny and beatings they endured from Dr. Dre and other members of NWA, bad “messages” within the film’s cheesy underclad groupie scenes. And it … Continue reading →

Bret “Less Than Zero/American Psycho” Easton Ellis never quite got over the ’80s. You can see it in every movie he has a hand in, since that’s where the novelist seems to make his rent money these days.  He’s not … Continue reading →

Here it is, every arrow in the Butterscotch Stallion’s quiver. With “No Escape” dumped in the No Hit Zone of the end of August (Aug. 26), Wilson is in the latter stages of his film stardom. But here’s a video … Continue reading →

“The Keeping Room” is a self-consciously gritty and minimalist female empowerment thriller that could have just been three pretty actresses getting down and Scarlett O’Hara dirty in the waning days of the Civil War. But those three players transcend this … Continue reading →

That headline says it all. F. Gary Gray’s bio film of the seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A. is exceeding expectations and blowing up August. It did over $22 late night Thursday and all day Friday, and could clear $55 million … Continue reading →

Let’s parse these Tomatometer numbers on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” an August thriller (as in, not good enough to land an audience in the more competitive May-July window) if ever there was one. I mean, it’s blandly amusing, here and … Continue reading →

The deadpan charms of Kiwi comic Jemaine Clements are the chief recommendation of “People Places Things,” a droll New York romantic comedy that feels like 240 indie rom-coms that preceded it. Not that it doesn’t have its novelties. OK, novelty. … Continue reading →

Greta Gerwig has the title role in the manic and maniacally funny “Mistress America,” a chatty, shrewdly observant comedy about a New York/social media “type” anybody with a cell phone will recognize. Tracy (Lola Kirke of “Gone Girl”) certainly has. … Continue reading →

You’re gut shot, left alone to bleed out and die in the desert. And the only person who can save you is your teenage daughter, who suffers from agoraphobia so crippling she’s barely been out of doors in her entire … Continue reading →

There’s nothing inherently wrong with treating that semi-campy 1960s TV spy series “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” as a lark, and the two agents in it as the original “Ambigiously Gay Duo.” But Guy “Sherlock Holmes” Ritchie doesn’t have the touch … Continue reading →