Category Archives: Reviews

“So you are an artist,” an Iranian member of the Basij, the country’s paramilitary morality police, hisses at the hero of “Desert Dancer,” who is about to be punished. “Beat him…artistically!” You have to get by the occasional risible moment … Continue reading →

The pretty coed doesn’t want to go, doesn’t see herself “as a rodeo gal.” But her sorority sisters insist she ogle the “easy on the eyes” cowboys with them. He rides a bull, falls off and loses his hat. She … Continue reading →

Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz remembers his first “whippersnapper moment.” The once-and-future Beastie boy, 48, was at an outdoor concert in Brooklyn a while back. “There were these kids hanging out next to us,” Horovitz recalls. “One guy next to us was … Continue reading →

“Woman  in Gold” is a very good story meekly told. It’s a dramatization of one woman’s to recover the art looted from one Jewish family by the Nazis, rendered here in mostly flat tones and trite dialogue. A good rule … Continue reading →

Paul Walker’s untimely death “Furious 7” pops to mind every time characters walk away from some physics-defying, digitally-enhanced car crash in the film. “No more funerals,” characters pledge to one-another at several moments in early scenes. And in the movies, … Continue reading →

Sir Alfred once said, “The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.” Committing this truism to memory would still serve any film student well. It’s stunning how few filmmakers remember that when writing, casting and producing their independent … Continue reading →

It hits us all, that day when “hip” suggests “replacement” and “Old Man/Old Woman Talk” enters our vocabulary. We scratch our heads over names like Kanye and Lena and cope, with growing confusion, at the next generation’s values. It happens … Continue reading →

“Do You Believe?” is a “Crash” for the Christian cinema. A star-studded weeper about faith and how one comes to it, “Believe” takes over an hour before it gives away its connections to “God’s Not Dead.” So what had been … Continue reading →

“Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter” didn’t really happen. It’s an urban legend. It’s sort of like “Fargo” that way. That’s the movie that Kumiko (Rinko Kikuchi of “Pacific Rim”) stumbles across while beach-combing near Tokyo. It’s buried in the sand in … Continue reading →