Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

“Peace by Chocolate” is a charming, almost achingly-sweet fish-out-of-water comedy about Syrian Civil War refugees adjusting to life in small town Canada. Considering the family business they try to establish — chocolate making– “sweet” is pretty much a given. We … Continue reading →

The opening moments of “Navalny,” the biographical documentary of Russian dissident, muckraker and opposition political candidate Alexei Navalny establish just how gutsy the guy is. A photogenic 40something lawyer who became a big thorn in president-pretty-much-for-life Vladimir Putin’s side, important … Continue reading →

You can search high and low, making your “Around the World With Netflix” journey, and never have much luck disproving the premise of Albert Brooks’ political farce, “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World.” The odd not-that-amusing rom-com from Indonesia, … Continue reading →

Not every animated biography of a painter will have the ambition and artistry of “Loving Vincent,” but if you’re going to the trouble of telling the story with painting — even digital painting — it seems as if you should … Continue reading →

Animation has long been used to teach the concepts of religion to new followers, so it’s not absurd, in principal, that Ryuho Okawa would minister to the masses via anime in “The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim.” … Continue reading →

A quick tech rundown before the star arrives at the Enzian Theater in Mainland. “Star Trek: The Voyage Home” and then a q &;a with Wild Bill. Good times.

No less an authority than the Kyiv Independent says that for outsiders to truly “understand what’s going on in Ukraine,” the best entre to the situation might be from a couple of recent movies filmed there. The award-winning “Donbass” which … Continue reading →

This American indie film hits theaters May 27. I’ll have to poke around a bit and figure out who is behind it, as it has a whiff of prostheltyzing about it.

Although I can’t go all-in on “Choose or Die,” I will say that there’s a lot to be said for a horror movie with clever twists, a top flight cast and a witty consistency to its conceit. A vintage game … Continue reading →

A satire of interconnected vignettes — sketches — tied together in a loopy, bloody-minded State of France farce of a story, “Bloody Oranges” won’t be to most tastes. Discerning its meaning and what the filmmaker and his uninhibited, Comedie Francaise-spangled … Continue reading →