‘Wonderstruck’ Review: Art House for Kiddies
If I were to whip up a list of the directors I expected to make movies for children in 2017, Todd Haynes’ name would be somewhere near the bottom. The art house darling behind ‘Safe’, ‘Carol’ and R...
Category Archives: At the Movies
‘Thank You for Your Service’ Review: Imperfect Gratit
‘American Sniper’ screenwriter John Hall makes his directorial debut with strikingly similar material. Fortunately, his follow-up focuses on the best aspects of that troubled war epic. Gone are the disturbingly narrow-...
‘Breathe’ Review: Do Not Resuscitate
You’d think that the directorial debut of motion-capture acting pioneer Andy Serkis would be some sort of technical marvel, especially given that it’s produced by his own studio. Instead, Serkis directed ‘Breathe...
‘Suburbicon’ Review: Bafflingly Misconcieved
Sometimes a group of talented people with the best intentions get together and make a failure. Such is the case for ‘Suburbicon’, a film written by the Coen brothers, directed by George Clooney, and starring Matt Damon...
Weekend Box Office: Scared Stupid
With five wide release movies fighting for your cost of admission, it’s no surprise that none of them were big hits. One had an okay opening while the other four bombed. To be fair, none of them were marketed very well, whic...
Weekend Roundtable: Best/Favorite Serial Killer Movies
The new thriller ‘The Snowman’ opens in theaters this week while ‘Mindhunter’ has been making a splash on Netflix. One of these things may be worth watching. (By all accounts, it’s not likely the fros...
‘Geostorm’ Review: A Disaster of Emmerichian Proporti
Here’s a sentence that will surprise no one: That movie where Gerard Butler fights a super storm sucks. The film didn’t screen for critics and likely won’t be discussed as the disaster that it is since it came ou...
‘Take Every Wave’ Review: Surfing’s Like Life,
After a string of heavy social issue documentaries, director Rory Kennedy takes a breather with a doc about surf legend Laird Hamilton. While the subject matter is far lighter and less vital than Abu Ghraib or Vietnam, Kennedy emb...
Weekend Movies: Me and You and a Dog Named Boo
Why studios slate multiple wide release movies on jam-packed weekends is beyond me. Sardined into theaters this week are five – you read that correctly – five movies opening on 1,300 screens or more. These include a brain-dead dis...
‘Only the Brave’ Review: Firefighter Drama Not Quite
There’s a fine line between a contemporary movie harkening back to old-fashioned entertainment and feeling dated. ‘Only the Brave’ walks that tightrope and slips over to the latter side more often than not.
‘The Snowman’ Review: He’s No Jolly Happy Soul
‘The Snowman’ is filled with promise that it never delivers. Based on the obscenely popular novels by Joe Nesbø, directed by Tomas Alfredson (‘Let the Right One In’), and starring Michael Fassbender, the fi...
‘Brawl in Cell Block 99’ Review: Artful Exploitation
‘Brawl in Cell Block 99’ is the type of film that thoughtful consumers of nasty entertainment treasure. It’s a genre movie that never shies away from its most exploitative elements, instead embracing them in ways...