Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Well, this probably seemed like a slam dunk movie pitch. Channel Allison Janney’s not-taking-your-s–t energy into a sort of “Gloria” meets “Hard Rain” thriller. But as the action tropes quickly devolve into cliches and the hard-bitten dialogue lapses into a … Continue reading →

Ever since “Platoon,” Hollywood has parked Tom Berenger behind a rifle. A string of “Sniper” movies, “Blood and Money,” assorted soldiers and shooters, on into his dotage. Sure, he’s done other films, but he’s the go-to guy when you cast … Continue reading →

There are scenarios where one could see “Christmas Bloody Christmas” appreciated for what it is — a cheesy, gory, dumber-than-dumb C-movie about an animatronic Santa going on a snowy Xmas Eve rampage. Such situations might be limited to drunken, half-stoned … Continue reading →

As a film lover, you’re going to set aside part of your Christmas to New Years vacation to catch Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” the three hour epic set during Hollywood — and America’s — most debauched epoch (until now), the silent … Continue reading →

The Irish do the gloom thing quite well. Poets and painters, novelists and filmmakers, they get their greys right and the grim earth tones of fall and can all but consume any notion of cheer and the Irish spring long … Continue reading →

The new Sight and Sound magazine “Greatest Films of All Time” list has gotten its once-a-decade updating. It’s the list that first enshrined “Citizen Kane,” that later critics/voters replaced with “Vertigo,” and so on, down the decades since 1952. And … Continue reading →

“My Name is Vendetta (Il mio nome è vendetta) ” is a properly blood-spattered Italian hitman thriller with a few loopy touches — and blunders — that mark it as a B-movie. Generic as it generally is, it’s worth a … Continue reading →

Israel’s bid for Best International Feature Oscar glory this year is a charming but slight drama about a group of women who take a filmmaking course in a community center in the Israeli city of Hadera. Eight women join a … Continue reading →

I’m getting a “Toy Story 3” vibe from this one. You?

“Goddamned Asura” is a somewhat accessible but frustrating Taiwanese drama about disaffected young lives brought together in a random act of violence — a mass shooting at a night market filled with street vendors, street food and customers. Director and … Continue reading →