A surprise hit late last year is this romantic, or perhaps unromantic comedy, which seems to have caught everyone unawares. It was re-released for Valentine’s Day with a brief but very enjoyable section of bloopers, outtakes and more singing by […]
Continue reading »Month: February 2024
Lisa Frankenstein (2024) ☆ ☆
This seems to be the season for horny reanimated people, what with Poor Things and now Lisa Frankenstein, both of which detail with sexual maturity and, well, reconstituted people. Why? I have no idea. I didn’t really understand Poor Things and I don’t […]
Continue reading »Past Lives (2023) ☆ ☆ ☆
There are no aliens or robots or alien robots or time travel or superheroes or apocalypses or multiverses in Past Lives — although some of the same themes about life that appear in those science-fiction and fantasy stories can be found […]
Continue reading »Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) ☆ ☆
The alien robots of the “Transformers” universe are back, and they have all new allies and enemies with whom they can fight. A whole new cast of humans is also provided, partly to prove to the Autobots that the human […]
Continue reading »Fear the Night (2023) ☆ ☆
There’s no cinematic surprise in the thriller Fear the Night because most everything is telegraphed ahead of time and the plotting offers nothing new or very deep. The surprise is that this rather pedestrian thriller is written and directed by Neil […]
Continue reading »His 100th Birthday, February 19, 2024
Today is Lee Marvin’s birthday. He would have been 100 today, had he not succumbed to a sudden heart attack in 1987, so I thought I should take this opportunity to celebrate his show business career, which lasted from 1951 […]
Continue reading »American Fiction (2023) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Politicians continue to downplay racism in American culture, despite the fact that it is present and has affected for two centuries, and continues to affect our culture in all sorts of ways, obvious and not so obvious. This movie explores […]
Continue reading »Turning Red (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
Turning Red, the expensive Pixar animated film from 2022, is finally receiving a theatrical release, and I made sure to see it in a theatre. It is incomprehensible to me how Disney / Pixar decided to bypass a theatrical release […]
Continue reading »Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) ☆ ☆ ☆
While Killers of the Flower Moon is an expertly produced, directed and acted film, it isn’t one that lends itself to viewer adoration and the kind of love that leads to repeat viewings. I doubt that I’ll ever see it again. […]
Continue reading »The Zone of Interest (2023) ☆
I’ve mentioned in other reviews how the most acclaimed films use ambiguity to their advantage; one sees what one sees, or wants to see, and the same circumstances can be interpreted in many ways. This is one of those films, […]
Continue reading »