Category Archives: Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news

This abortive effort to sell the 1970s horror classic to movie fans never made it into theaters. It’s arty and horrific, images popping on the screen that play like Friedkin’s thriller’s greatest scariest hits.

The guard is changing for filmmakers we have treated as “brand names” for years. Which is why the director of the indie horror pic, “It Comes at Night,” sort of “The Quiet Place” only Australian and somewhat less creepy, is … Continue reading →

What’d the ol’ball coach tell us? All the ol’ball coaches? “Play through the whistle,” he’d say. “Play through ‘The Last Whistle.’” “The Last Whistle” is a lukewarm Texas melodrama that lets your parse that phrase and ethos. Exert yourself to … Continue reading →

The writer director announced his comeback with “First Reformed” in 2017. Now, the man who directed “Cat People” and “Light Sleeper” and “Afliction” and scripted “Taxi Driver” has Oscar Isaac to star in this gambling/vengeance drama. Paul Schrader has a … Continue reading →

Nothing much happens in “Light from Light,” an East Tennessee character study bathed in mourning cloaked in quiet. The lead characters meet because she’s an amateur ghost hunter, with lifelong intuitions, and he’s a grieving widower who wonders if his … Continue reading →

Remember that scene in “World War Z” where the zombies take on ant collectivist behavior and overwhelm the walls of Erezt Israel? There’s such a moment in “Assimilate,” a C-grade thriller about “pod people” who are zombies in all but … Continue reading →

Lin Manuel Miranda is producing, making this Rita Moreno doc happen. Long overdue. https://t.co/QP36ag4zac https://t.co/3Cx8exOSJj https://twitter.com/REMEZCLA/status/1188616380519735296?s=17

Mixed reviews came in for the lovely re-edit of this movie, which was marred by Harvey Weinstein in a recut, and then abandoned as his #MeToo troubles exploded. But here’s an Interesting history of the rescue edit that saved “The … Continue reading →

It’s not exactly fair, releasing a thriller with the title “Bloody Marie” right around Halloween. But hey, anything to trick the horror crowd into reading subtitles, right? “Bloody Marie” is a Dutch character study, a fraught if not entirely taut … Continue reading →