Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Throwing in a mewling infant is a bit much. Granted, I was far enough into the sentimental Spanish coming-of-age melodrama that I thought, “You can’t do a knockoff of ‘Stand By Me’ without a body,” when lo and behold one … Continue reading →

Katie Holmes‘ “Alone Together” is the latest, almost certainly not the last of the “pandemic makes strange bedfellows” dramas and romances inspired by and filmed during lockdown. Tenderly-conceived, tastefully-directed, handsomely-mounted and prestigiously-cast, its a drama that runs up against the … Continue reading →

Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence had “Mama’s Family,” Tyler Perry had “Madea.” Brit comic actress Catherine Tate’s “Nan,” a character from her self-titled sketch comedy series, is pitched somewhere in between, a crude and coarse vulgarian who must be pushing … Continue reading →

The dreamy, scenic and sweet “Doom of Love” has the look and feel of something truly novel — a Turkish slacker romance. But this Around the World with Netflix bauble about a young man cast adrift when his start-up obituary … Continue reading →

A huge humpbacked steamer trunk takes second billing in “The Bride in the Box,” a new horror film. As I once spent a few years buying, restoring and re-selling such trunks, I was keen to see any movie that might … Continue reading →

A single set sci-fi/psychological “experiment” take, testing its subjects in a white on white “cage.” Aug. 19, things get messy in “The Immaculate Room.”

Today’s Around the World with Netflix trip is a jumbled, over-reaching thriller from Egypt creatively-titled “The Crime.” A sort of death-bed confessional/morality tale that an old man tells of his murderous past, it shows more ambition than skill in its … Continue reading →

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (“Top Gun”) milks another ’80s property for a little extra cash for his dotage in this Showtime (Of course.) series adaptation of the movie. Rosie O’Donnell, Gretchen Moll, Wayne Brady and a 1960s Jaguar E-Type co-star. Sept. … Continue reading →

A dreamy South African parable of a bloody past coming back to haunt the present, “Jewel” never actually takes us into the infamous Sharpeville Massacre of 1960. This Around the World with Netflix story is about the ripples of pain … Continue reading →

 Their voices are high-pitched and giggly, their attention spans short and their uniform skirts shorter. Who would EVER think these dizzy young things are contract killers, petite Powerpuff Girls with itchy trigger fingers and their whole careers in front of … Continue reading →