Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Classic Film Review: Damon, Norton, Famke, Turturro and Landau deal the cards — “Rounders” (1998)

The knock on “Rounders” (1998) was always that it was, to quote a review or two at the time of its release, “lazy.” It’s a genre pic, gamblers’ ups and downs as one (Matt Damon) tries to focus on law … Continue reading →

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Movie Preview: Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, “The Order”

An Aryan Nation investigation out in Secessionist America (Idaho), starring Jude Law and Jurnee Smollett on the hunt for anti government Nazis/racists/militia nuts who rob banks and bomb synagogues, with Nicholas Hoult on the wrong side and Tye Sheridan as … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Laura and Liam visit Travel Guide Morocco — “Lonely Planet”

With Diane and Bruce as my witnesses, I swear I never thought I’d see Oscar winner Laura Dern in a movie as empty and pointless as “Lonely Planet.” But Susannah Grant, the screenwriter of “Erin Brockovich” and “The Soloist,” took … Continue reading →

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Documentary Review: John & Yoko take over Daytime TV for a Week of Peace, Love, Music and Macrobiotics — “Daytime Revolution”

On Valentine’s Day 1972, daytime TV viewers across America — senior retirees, college kids between classes, “housewives” and kids coming home from school — were treated to something entirely novel on their TV. The pleasantly bland “Mike Douglas Show,” hosted … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Deformed, then “Cured,” but is he “A Different Man?”

An artist, the old saying goes, is “someone who pounds the same nail, over and over again.” So it’s not a shock that “Chained for Life” writer-director Aaron Schimberg returns to the subject of beauty, disfigurement and the ways society … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Trump learns to Lie, Cheat, Betray and Steal to get what he wants as “The Apprentice”

Before Donald Trump came along, Roy Cohn was widely regarded as one of the most repellent, unscrupulous and unrepetently divisive figures in American political history. A virulently ruthless right wing lawyer, extortionist and political operator, a self-loathing Jew who crowed … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: How did we Ever get through a Weekend without “Saturday Night” Live?

As history, “Saturday Night” is the ultimate exercise in “OK, Boomer” nostalgia for “the first generation to grow up on TV.” As entertainment, Jason Reitman’s putting-on-a-show comedy about the chaotic 1975 opening night of “Saturday Night Live” is a breathless … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Pharrell Williams tells his story in Legos — “Piece by Piece”

I’m not sure the world asked for a documentary on the rise of one-hat/one-big-hit wonder Pharrell Williams, much less one turned into a Lego animated spectacle. But darned if it isn’t the most adorable, upbeat rendering of an Up-from-the-Projects musical … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: “Rumours” of a G-7…zombie assault?

When the zombie apocalypse comes, the political animals leading the Western democracies will be powerless to stop it. That’s the big message of “Rumours,” a dry, fitfully amusing horror satire of the ineffectual, word-parsing diplomat-speech of G-7 leadership in the … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Indian influencer cedes “CTRL” of her online life at her own peril

“CTRL” is a slick and melodramatic Indian variation of the “runaway computer/evil AI” formula, a tale that begins jaunty and jokey and staggers into sinister in the most heavy-handed ways. Ananya Panday stars as Nella, a pretty young woman who … Continue reading →

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