Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

I was hoping for a long shot, “Puss in Boots.” But this stop-motion marvel was one of the very best pictures of last year. Score one for Netflix, and another one for Guillermo del Toro. “Keep animation in the conversation,” … Continue reading →

My first name is of French origin and originally meant “fame” and “spear,” which…fits. But “Roger” has so many other meanings, fun and more fun. It’s radio parlance for “affirmative,” which has an interesting WWII etymology. Then there’s the slangy, … Continue reading →

The hallmarks of a D-movie are many, but often include the following. They’re usually horror films. And there’re always a couple of horror “names” in the cast, people whose credits include low-to-no-budget slasher, spatter and “dead teenager” movie credibility. In … Continue reading →

The topicality, the writing, the Edward Hopper Stuck at Waffle House production design, the mayhem in pantomime. And the acting. Jenna Ortega’s most touching moment.

The academic turned Pulitzer-prize-winning novelist Richard Russo’s college-set comedy “Straight Man” becomes the latest Bob Oedenkirk AMC+ series, casting him as a writer/English dept. chair in mid-midlife crisis — “Lucky Hank.” It’s a droll comedy about witty, petty, self-absorbed academics, … Continue reading →

“Have a Nice Day!” is a sentimental coming of age dramedy that doesn’t quite come off. Lots of promising if somewhat conventional possibilities are introduced, with only the least interesting of them pursued. It’s lighthearted, but ungainly, incomplete and disappointing … Continue reading →

A throwback martial arts fantasy like “Code of the Assassins” can’t help but summon up what one remembers of Joseph Campbell’s seminal book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” or Vladimir Propp’s “The Morphology of the Folk Tale.” There really … Continue reading →

There’s a winning business idea tucked into the 93 minutes of the grief, guilt and its consequences drama “Rebroken.” The film features Tobin Bell, the Once and Always “Jigsaw,” as a sort of inscrutable therapist members of a grief self-help … Continue reading →

This is lovely to look at. The um “story?” Hard to uh, SAY. April 5 we find out.

Long review short, if you liked Idris Elba as the plays-by-his-own-rules DCI John Luther on the British TV series, you’ll enjoy another two hours with him in the made for Netflix film, “Luther: The Fallen Sun.” Whatever else the series … Continue reading →