Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Medieval combat, “The Battle on the Ice,” music by Prokofiev and the Soviet master of montage (editing) makes a spectacle out of mise en scene (production design, epic shot compositions) — that’s what cinephiles summon up when revering Serge Eisenstein’s … Continue reading →

“Red Notice” doesn’t go to hell straight away. Oh no. The first act is “Thomas Crown Affair,” witty and caperish and fun. The second act is “National Treasure” warmed over — a treasure hunt with lots of Big Budget action … Continue reading →

“Lokillo,” aka “Lokillo en: Mi Otra Yo” is a Colombian comedy about a sexist TV chat show host forced to dress as a woman and hide out in prison after he crosses a Colombian drug lord. This “Around the World … Continue reading →

This is pitched as a “continuous streaming event,” streaming Thanksgiving week. Looks alternative-lifestyle intriguing, I must say. Check it out.

“Tone” is the triumph of the Welsh thriller “The Feast.” Tone — in its lonely, remote setting, its chilly, unsettling characters and the deeply unpleasant things that transpire — is everything. The Welsh language (with subtitles) tale may take some … Continue reading →

“Passing” is something of an understated tease. Actress Rebecca Hall, just seen in “The Night House,” makes her writing/directing debut a melodrama about race that hints that it might be about something more than fair-skinned Black women — one “passing” … Continue reading →

“Hell Hath No Fury” is a WWII B-movie of the type Quentin Tarantino might have worshipped during his days as a video store clerk. It could have been Italian, filmed in the ’60s and made by people who didn’t care … Continue reading →

A bloody-minded B-movie of drug heists, prison, “cleaning up” and revenge, “Ida Red” is a straight-up B-movie with the some good performances and the odd good scene interrupted its funereal pacing and over-the-top violence. There’s an outlandish lawlessness in play … Continue reading →

Whatever the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)” has to say on the subject, the movies have long maintained that there’s a thin line between “loveable eccentric” and “mentally ill.” While we’ve (mostly) progressed beyond the “all the … Continue reading →

Today’s “Around the World with Netflix” outing is a “true crime” police procedural about the hunt for a missing Italian teen, and the precedent-setting steps a dogged prosecutor took to find her, and then arrest her killer and bring him … Continue reading →