Tag Archives: movies

Netflixable? June Squibb is “Eleanor the Great”

Timing, especially in comedy, is everything. But Sony Pictures Classics had no way of knowing that its Oscar-campaigned Jewish Holocaust dramedy “Eleanor the Great” would come out in the middle of worldwide outrage at an ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. … Continue reading

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Netflixable? Coogan and Bird Charm their Way through a Class on Fascism — “The Penguin Lessons”

No English speaking actor in film is better at making caddish and insufferably self-absorbed charming than Steve Coogan. That proves to be a saving grace of “The Penguin Lessons,” a sweet saunter through a true story of a rescued bird … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “I Was a Stranger” and You Welcomed Me

Just when you think that you’ve seen and heard all sides of the human migration debate, and long after you fear that the cruel, the ignorant and the scapegoaters have won that shouting match, a film comes along and defies … Continue reading

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BOX OFFICE: “Avatar” Wins Again, “Zootopia” earns away, “Song Sung Blue” holds, “We Bury the Dead” cracks Top Ten

The box office for the first weekend of 2026 is up by a fair amount over last year, thanks to the release of another “Avatar” sequel and the holding piwer of a Disney animated sequel, with help from Sydney Sweeney … Continue reading

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Netflixable? Comfort Food Film is Always in Season, “Goodbye June”

Oscaar winner Kate Winslet directed and stars in “Goodbye June,” a sentimental and sharply-observed dramedy in which terrific performances and a couple of deeply emotional scenes overcome the glum predictability of it all. Because everybody knows the holidays are a … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer”

Sometimes a film title says it all, or at least entirely too much. Turkish filmmaker Tolga Karaçelik blunders into that truism all too eagerly with his American feature film debut — a comic thriller he deigned to over-label “Psycho Therapy: … Continue reading

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Classic Film Review: Hitchcock “adapts” to Talkies — “East of Shanghai” (aka “Rich and Strange”) (1931)

It came as a surprise for me, and probably shouldn’t have, that Alfred Hitchcock’s transition to sound from silent cinema took more than a film or two and more than a year or two. Hitchcock was half a dozen films … Continue reading

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Documentary Review: An Environmental/Farm Economy Parable from Macedonia — “The Tale of Silyan”

An ancient parable is remembered and acted-out in modern day Macedonia in “The Tale of Silyan,” the latest documentary from the director of the Oscar-nominated “Honeyland.” Writer-director Tamara Kotesvka documents the collapse of her country’s small farm economy and sees … Continue reading

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Movie Review: What Makes “Marty Supreme?”

New York filmmaker Josh Safdie has his fans, and I’ve been one of them at times. At other times? Not so much. He does underbelly-of-the-city stories well. “Good Time” was something of a reinvention of the possibilities of Robert Pattinson. … Continue reading

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BOX OFFICE: It’s still “Avatar’s” world, “Marty” makes Bank, “Anaconda” strikes and “Song Sung Blue” struggles

A $64 million post-Christmas, final-weekend of the year take certifies James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” as the final blockbuster of 2025, as it hurtles past the $200 million mark — $214 million taken in by midnight Sunday, reports TheNumbers.com. … Continue reading

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