Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

We charter members of the “I’d watch Matthias Schoenaerts in ANYthing” Club (Hellooo ladies.) will have see our loyalty tested, just a tad, with “Close Enemies.” This French thriller (“Freres Ennemis”) may have a great, grey look, gritty milieu and … Continue reading →

Horace B. Jenkins made his romantic melodrama “Cane River” a couple of years before Spike Lee made his breakthrough first film. It arrived a decade before Julie Dash’s seminal indie drama of people and a place, “Daughters of the Dust.” … Continue reading →

Director Reed Morano keeps her camera tight on star Blake Lively throughout “The Rhythm Section.” The “Handmaid’s Tale” veteran knows where her meal ticket is, knows that Lively is worth halting filming to have a baby or heal up from … Continue reading →

A period piece, from the ’90s, music by Bowie and the forgotten sounds of the day.

Sentiment and cynicism wrestle each other into submission in the Medal of Honor story, “The Last Full Measure.” In writer-director Todd Robinson’s “too much is never enough” hands, sentiment wins the day. And then it does a victory lap and … Continue reading →

Harlem girl, college-bound, entirely too smart for the neighborhood guys who are all “speak ‘game,’ play game, one big game” with their come-ons. But then Ayanna, the aspiring writer and would-be poet, stumbles into Isaiah, the earnest, smart would-be music … Continue reading →

Long before she did “Bird Box,” “The Night Manager” or “Serena,” Susanne Bier was a Danish director to watch. “After the Wedding” and “In a Better World” marked her as someone with a distinct perspective and a long career ahead … Continue reading →

The trailers for this shout “JANUARY thriller,” and that’s a good thing. It’s a great month to release a picture with no Oscar pretenses, an action film. Mark Wahlberg knocked out a couple, before he was sentenced to Netflix. Everybody … Continue reading →

One of the delights of the third act of Sir Ian McKellen’s life and illustrious career has been throwing dinner parties, sometimes in swank restaurants here or there — often in the ancient and storied pub he owns, The Grapes. … Continue reading →