Tag Archives: movies

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

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Netflixable? Comfort Food Film is Always in Season, “Goodbye June”

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

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: “Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer”

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

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Film Review: Hitchcock “adapts” to Talkies — “East of Shanghai” (aka “Rich and Strange”) (1931)

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

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Documentary Review: An Environmental/Farm Economy Parable from Macedonia — “The Tale of Silyan”

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

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: What Makes “Marty Supreme?”

Movie Review: “Song Sung Blue” Weepin’ in My Popcorn

Sing-along songs are musical comfort food, and any songsmith, singer or singer-songwriter can count him or herself lucky if they stumble into one in the course of a career. Musical biographies are the cinema’s equivalent of such comfort food, and … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: “Song Sung Blue” Weepin’ in My Popcorn

Movie Review: Black and Rudd & Co. Learn You Can’t Go “Anaconda” Again

Three movie stars who have been funny in their pre-dad-bod past and Thandiwe Newton — who’s rarely been called to land laughs — shipped off to Australia to make an action comedy about a supersized snake in the Amazon, a … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: Black and Rudd & Co. Learn You Can’t Go “Anaconda” Again

Movie Review: Kirby Howell-Baptiste is our Tour Guide among “We Strangers”

A hint of the inscrutable can do service to any film in any genre, and it pays off some surprising ways in “We Strangers,” an oddball domestic dramedy about a “domestic” and the dizzy white folks who hire her. Veteran … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: Kirby Howell-Baptiste is our Tour Guide among “We Strangers”

Classic Film Review: “Detour” (1945), still as Noir as Film Noir Gets

“That’s life,” the anti-hero of “Detour” growls in voice-over. “Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.” Hardboiled, archetype-upending and gorgeous in its bare-bones minimalism, “Detour” is quintessential film noir. “The Maltese Falcon” preceded it and … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Film Review: “Detour” (1945), still as Noir as Film Noir Gets

Netflixable? Koreans face Doomsday — “The Great Flood”

Preppers, survivalists, Rapture fans and doomsday cultists may get a kick out of “The Great Flood,” a downbeat-to-the-point-of-bleak thriller about the End of Human Civilization. A young Korean mother (Kim Da-Mi) carries her six year-old (Kwon Eun-sung) up several flights … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Netflixable? Koreans face Doomsday — “The Great Flood”