Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

It starts with a simple request. OK, it’s a horror movie. So maybe not so simple. “I want to talk to somebody who’s not around any more.” Of course, warning young Quinn (Stefanie Scott) that trying to talk with her … Continue reading →

Writer-director-actor Jason Trost’s “How to Save Us” is a clever mash-up of the zombie apocalypse thriller and ghost story genres. But this lean indie picture runs out of surprises early and never overcomes flat, uninvolving acting, primarily by the eyepatch-wearing … Continue reading →

“Freedom” is nothing if not ambitious. An indie period piece about the Underground Railroad and the English slave ship captain whose change of heart led him to compose “Amazing Grace,” it covers enough ground to fuel a TV miniseries. And … Continue reading →

Writer-director Paul Feig and his “Bridesmaids” muse, Melissa McCarthy, flip the script and ditch the fat jokes for their latest. And “Spy,” a bloody-minded spy spoof, is all the richer for it. A profane pistol-packing riff on the Bond formula, … Continue reading →

Here’s how you create a pacifist. Show her a world of beauty, promise and expectations. Give her a brother she loves, gentleman callers who vie for her attention. And then start a war, the silliest and most tragic war of … Continue reading →

“San Andreas” didn’t manage better than middling reviews. But it blew up the box office. Great effects, The Rock in the lead, all the usual disaster pic formula ingredients — $53 million+, almost $54. A very nice weekend for a … Continue reading →

When last we left Vincent Chase, he and his “Entourage” were moving on. Ari the angry agent was leaving the biz, Eric the manager was moving from LA to NYC, and Vince? He was jetting off the Paris. Of all … Continue reading →

Posy Simmonds couldn’t have had actress Gemma Arterton in mind when she wrote “Gemma Bovery,” her darkly comic 1999 spoof of Gustav Flaubert’s classic tragic 19th century novel “Madame Bovary,” about a bored provincial housewife whose affair has tragic consequences. … Continue reading →

For more than a decade, nothing has screamed “B-movie” louder than seeing Milla Jovovich’s name in a movie’s credits. But even in the worst of those “Resident Evil” action pictures, the model-thin Jovovich delivered fair value, packing a lot of … Continue reading →

The novelty of having a real homeless junkie play a version of herself drives “Heaven Knows What,” a gritty hand-held character portrait of heroin addict life in New York today. The unblinking character study, shot in muted shades of grey, … Continue reading →