Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

The full title of “Dance First” includes the phrase “A Life of Samuel Beckett.” They left out the word “abridged.” Because while one simply could not do better than have the great Irish actor Gabriel Byrne playing Beckett as a … Continue reading →

It’s not what you think. OK, maybe it is. Awkward funeral? Check. Weird sister in law? Oh yeah. Billie Lourd also stars in this, with Colin Hanks as the bloke who makes our heroine a “Corpse Bride.” August 19? We’ll … Continue reading →

Scenes rarely play like “scenes” in the films of Robert Altman. They don’t so much begin, reach their point, and end. The dialogue is cluttered, non-stop, layered in around the leads. “Important” lines from the characters the story is about … Continue reading →

Maybe Jessica Belkin is a victim to be. Or maybe those coming for her crossed the wrong waitress. Sept. 20.

Say this for the Mexican action comedy “Non-Negotiable.” They pack a lot of characters, plot and “twists” into 86 minutes. An almost jaunty, populist action comedy about a presidential kidnapping, scandal, petty corruption with a whiff of police incompetence built … Continue reading →

This premieres at London’s Frightfest in August, and doesn’t appear to have distribution…yet. But considering the filmmakers eager to appear on camera to sing his praises, that could happen. He was apparently a deadly spy, a definitive Dracula, Bond villain … Continue reading →

Edie Falco plays the hovering/mothering type in this comedy with Bradley Whitford, Michael Rapaport, Jeanie Berlin, Charlie Tahan, Kayli Carter, Michael Beach and ex-Congressman/ex-“Love Boater” Fred Grandy. This just came off the film fest circuit, so look for it to … Continue reading →

Years of experience teach you to set your sites low for some movies. An ambitious, combat-heavy WWII RAF bio-pic with no big names in the cast, no major distributor behind it, a modest-budget film that premieres and reaches much of … Continue reading →

When Frederick Forsythe wrote “The Day of the Jackal” in the early ’70s, professional assassin tales were a relatively rare thing. Likewise, when Fred Zinneman made his 1973 benchmark Euro-thriller film of the story of a killer rogue French right … Continue reading →

Crackling dialogue, bluff, brittle performances and a plot riddled with “coincidences” and saddled with clumsy, chatty villains characterize “Nightfall,” a fin de noir thriller from Jacques Tourneur. It features linebacker-in-a-suit Aldo Ray as a commercial artist fleeing two murderous bank … Continue reading →