Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

Let’s return now to the Baztan Valley, Navarre, the cloud-and-fog shrouded north of Spain, where detective Amaia Salazar must wrap up her toughest, most gruesome and most personal murder case. “Offering to the Storm” finishes of the “Baztan Trilogy” based … Continue reading →

Decades ago, I tracked down animator and director Chuck Jones to talk about his greatest creations on the occasion of Bugs Bunny’s “birthday,” the date of his first appearance on the big screen. “Bugs Bunny is how we see ourselves,” … Continue reading →

From a Zoom conference at Comic Con.

“Gerry” is one of those indie films whose reputation spread much further than its distribution. And that reputation explains how few people have seen it. It’s an interesting experiment in minimalism, but a willfully obscure, indulgent wank of a movie. … Continue reading →

The legal profession takes its share of rightly-deserved brickbats from the press, the public and stand-up comics. And if you’ve ever dealt with a “class action” hustle — “We sue in your name, and keep all the money” — or … Continue reading →

  The children’s fantasy “Animal Crackers” didn’t deserve to be left on the shelf, which I am sure the folks who made it will be relieved to hear. It’s been finished since 2017, never gaining distribution in North America, barely … Continue reading →

Boy, much respect for this distributor, which has turned out some winners. But this Aug. 4 release looks amateurish, campy in an unintentional way.

Cosmo Jarvis punches above his weight in the film that announces his arrival as a cinematic force to be reckoned with in “The Shadow of Violence.” It’s a Tom Hardy-sized performance in the sort of role Hardy tackled early on, … Continue reading →

Ahh, the flipping comic book pages of the Marvel Studios logo, the voice-over narration meant to lend gravitas and personality to the caped and spandexed adventure to follow. Here’s the first scene to “New Mutants,” because the old ones were … Continue reading →

It’s long enough ago that a lot of people don’t remember it. But Times Square wasn’t always a tourist haven. New York used to be broke, and broken. Vast stretches of New York City were wastelands, with nightly “insurance claim” … Continue reading →