Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Olympia Dukakis passed away today in her New York home, her family has announced. The Oscar winning star of *Moonstruck,” theater legend and acting “force of nature” was 89. I got to talk with her a few times over the … Continue reading →

The thing about the past, America’s historian David McCullough once told me, is “those folks never knew, at the time, how things would turn out.” That’s worth keeping in mind in recreating any nation’s “storied” history, especially when it comes … Continue reading →

“The County” is a tense and intimate Icelandic drama about a tragedy that brings a tempest in a teapot to a boil. Arndís Hrönn Egilsdóttir plays Inga, a dairy farmer whose life is upended when her husband dies behind the … Continue reading →

Whatever the cast was paid, however much the writer-director-producer got for getting “Wrong Place, Wrong Time” finished and in the hands of Uncork’d Entertainment, we can see where the real money was for this demons-and-dumdum bullets tale. The lady or … Continue reading →

The story of how Stanley Kubrick selected his subject for the “horror movie” he wanted to make goes like this. He’d send his secretary out to book stores after work every night. And the next day she’d sit in the … Continue reading →

“Duty Free” is a featherlight feel-good documentary about a broke son’s efforts to give something back to his equally-broke mother when she loses her job. Here are the heart-tugging “hooks” to this Mother’s Day gift. Rebecca Danigelis is an English … Continue reading →

As no-budget horror comedies about witchcraft go, “Bad Witch” isn’t half-bad. The implication that it’s half-good is a hill worth dying on, so let’s see if I can make this case. It’s about an aimless, slacker witch. Think of Xander, … Continue reading →

There’s a grand tradition in disaster movies, one revived by “crazy” “conspiracy nut” Björn in the Swedish thriller “The Unthinkable.” At some point, this would-be Jeremiah, who years before ran off his family with his mania, looks out over a … Continue reading →

In farm country, “We work in acres, not hours” lives are lived in small social circles on a big, underpopulated canvas. “Everybody knows everybody” is a double-edged sword, as people grow up with each other, remember failures and expectations harden … Continue reading →

“Cringe-worthy” comedies aren’t my favorite way to get a laugh, and “Eat Wheaties!” has a lot more in common with TV’s “The Office” than I’d typically care for. But Tony Hale makes an interesting “Variation on a Character Played by … Continue reading →