Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Like Elvis, Nicolas Cage is a pop culture figure who undergoes a revival every decade or so as a new generation rediscovers him, or new contemporaries find fresh reasons to appreciate the wonders of this sometimes forlorn icon of “out … Continue reading →

Beautifully-cast and well-acted, handsomely-mounted and comically topical, “American Fiction” strikes a precise blow at publishing culture, stereotypes of The Black Experience in America, expectations of The Reading Public and just what “they” let the African American “us” write about, sell … Continue reading →

This film festival darling might have awards buzz no one’s quite aware of, or perhaps was misguided. But the cast (Josh Charles included), the sadness that permeates the trailer — very much a “Fall” film and a “film festival” film … Continue reading →

Yeah, I’m late getting to this. And maybe it’s the memory of “Thanksgiving” that has me pondering the state of this particular horror project. Anybody get “This is another ‘fake’ trailer from ‘Grindhouse’” vibe from this one? Goldie and Kurt’s … Continue reading →

“Tropic” is tale of brotherly bonds sorely tested by an “accident,” set against their schooling for a competition to see who is fittest to be among France’s long-mission space colonists. The latest by director and co-writer Edouard Salier (“Cabeza Madre”) … Continue reading →

Documentary filmmaker Tylor Norwood embedded himself with California firefighters battling the million acre “Dixie Fire” of 2021 for “Fireline,” a new documentary about the dangerous work and ever-worsening fire situation in California and around the world in a warming, drying … Continue reading →

“Frybread Face and Me” is a sweet, downbeat and somewhat melancholy coming-of-age tale about a Navajo “city Indian” sent to spend the summer of 1990 in the reservation where his mother grew up. Writer-director Billy Luther, who is of Navajo, … Continue reading →

Silly me, I kept thinking about David Fincher’s dry and somewhat overpraised hitman film “The Killer” during sequences of the French comic thriller “Nouveaux riches,” retitled “All-Time High” and dubbed — if you prefer — for English speaking consumption. The … Continue reading →

The first thing that leaps out at you from “Mercy Road” is the loud, insistent string-heavy “thriller” music, a score that’s reminiscent of “Psycho” in its aural urgency. It’s not an over-the-top miscalculation, as it was scored by its director … Continue reading →

“Teddy’s Christmas” is a holiday fantasy for children that’s long on charm and light — to the point of “slight” — in entertainment value. It’s a Norwegian film (“Teddybjørnens jul”) dubbed for the English-speaking market, and now featuring the voice … Continue reading →