Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

A sophisticated Spanish comedy about “swingers” and “swinging,” wrestling with the emptiness of such pursuits, the dehumanizing nature of orgies among the anonymous and the coarsening of the culture that results from such pursuits? Nah. “More the Merrier (Donde Caben … Continue reading →

The video director of the last newspaper I worked for was the first person who admitted to me he and his wife were watching evey movie they viewed at home with the subtitles on. That was probably a dozen years … Continue reading →

Steven Spielberg opens his take on “West Side Story” on a construction site where New York’s famed West Side landmark, Lincoln Center, is under construction. It’s the mid-1950s, and he’s reminding us that the musical was capturing a moment in … Continue reading →

It’s not uncommon for first time writer-directors to make movies about a “hero” they identify with — at least a little — and a situation seen from the point of view of someone like them. That’s not necessarily a good … Continue reading →

Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s take on “Nightmare Alley,” a noirish carny novel first adapted for a Tyrone Power film in 1947, is a pitiless vision of an underworld of grifters and tent-show hustlers. Stunningly-detailed, with an A-list cast up … Continue reading →

There’s one obvious metaphor that I dare say playwright turned filmmaker Stephen Karam couldn’t make nearly as obvious in his play, “The Humans,” when it was on the stage. But it stands out like a scarlet letter in his intimate, … Continue reading →

Stately, austere and somewhat soap operatic, “The Power of the Dog” is an intimate story in a Cinemascope setting, and marks a welcome return to feature films for New Zealand’s Jane Campion, director of “The Piano” and most recently (in … Continue reading →

Cameroonian filmmaker Olivier Assoua makes his feature directing debut with “The Eagle’s Nest,” a lurid, lurching and muddled melodrama that still manages some good ideas and terrific moments. The screenplay, which he co-wrote, has an “everything but the kitchen sink” … Continue reading →

“Even Mice Belong in Heaven” is the most adorable and unusual animated offering for kids this year. A Czech production based on a children’s book by Iva Procházková, it’s an afterlife tale. And unlike “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” it’s … Continue reading →

Joaquin Phoenix and “endearing” don’t often make it into the same sentence. But watch his soft-spoken, laid-back turn in “C’mon, C’mon,” a movie about a midlife discovery of just how hard parenting is. “Endearing” is the only word that fits. … Continue reading →