Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

What we have here in the disastrously dull pilot to a TV series only comic book diehards would watch. A cast starved of charisma, an “origin story” screenplay barely worthy of the name and middling action beats — and damned … Continue reading →

“The Lost Okoroshi” is a shambolic satiric fantasy from Nigeria that never quite finds the laughs it’s looking for or hits the targets of its satire. It starts with promise and parks its heroic anti-hero in many a time-proven set-up. … Continue reading →

We’ve seen so many variations on that “stalked on the highway” plot that it’s rare that one punches through and makes itself stand out. The pulse-pounding third act of “Alone” puts it right up there with “Breakdown,” if not quite … Continue reading →

Her name is Lucy. Or Louise. Lucinda. Maybe Amy? She’s a med student, or studying physics or gerontology, a poet or a painter, a film critic or a waitress. And she lives in her head, narrating everything about this uncomfortable … Continue reading →

Brendan Gleeson looks like a defining Trump impersonation, not a cute caricature. Jeff Daniels ennobles James Coney just in the casting, when the guy is plainly a weasel. But this limited cable series looks quite good, for those who remember … Continue reading →

What an odd duck of a kids’ comedy “H is for Happiness” is. This Aussie confection tests one’s patience and foils attempts at interpretation. It takes forever to get going, and tends to balance every potentially giddy moment with a … Continue reading →

Mississippi-born filmmaker Jaclyn Bethany tells a story of love, madness and betrayal in “Indigo Valley,” adapted from her short film of the same title. The original film was set and shot in Iceland. The feature-length version, alas, is not. Bethany … Continue reading →

“Wan” and “bloodless” are the first words to leap to mind about this online dating/lawsuit-over-online-dating romantic comedy. “Love Guaranteed” starts out on life support and never comes out of the coma. It’s a creaking and sentimental followup by the screenwriters … Continue reading →

It will be hard to top Rose Byrne’s canny, sexy take on the feminist icon Gloria Steinem, one of the standout performances in Hulu’s “Mrs America” series this past spring. Alicia Vikander and Julianne Moore, and two younger actresses will … Continue reading →

In the canon, it’s listed with “the problem plays,” those Shakespearean works treated as comedies but with death, troubles and darkness lain o’er the “true love tested” proceedings. Resetting “Measure for Measure” in modern day Australia, in the gangland apartment … Continue reading →