Sports stories often aim for redemption as their primary goal, whether on a field or off.  This film continues that tradition, yet also subverts it in an intriguing, and ultimately, very honest way.  It plays like an urban version of Hoosiers, […]

This is one of those hard-to-review movies for me.  It is a critically acclaimed adaptation of a non-fiction book, anchored by a two-time Oscar-winning actress, filmed across seven states, offering a unique, challenging, largely unknown perspective of modern American life. […]

Loving animals and animal movies as I do, you might think I would be immediately smitten with a movie about a man who can talk to animals and who treasures them above people.  But I have always felt ambivalent about […]

Another 2020 release I originally missed was the science-fiction action drama Bloodshot.  It opened around the time that theaters were being shut down, but I wasn’t that interested in a Vin Diesel based-on-a-comic-book-superhero movie.  Now I’ve seen it anyway, and I […]

As if making a really good movie isn’t hard enough, some films, including this one, place obstacles in their own way.  In this case, it’s Edee, the main character, whose decisions are so poorly conceived and executed that she nearly […]

Some movies, like this one, are much harder to watch than others.  The Mauritanian is not a commercial film, despite its trio of stars; it is a deeply serious story which questions American attitudes following the 9/11 attacks.  It’s my guess […]

Serial killer stories have become pretty routine since the 1980s; instead of the certifiably crazy boogeymen who terrorized women throughout earlier film history more modern filmmakers have increasingly turned to regular Joe types, stylistic murderers with intricate plans, often known […]

As much as I see and enjoy movies, sometimes things pass me by with little fanfare.  I recall the 2000 release of Walt Disney Studio’s The Emperor’s New Groove, but it held no interest for me at all at that time.  Now, […]

When someone says “Movies can be, or should be, more than just entertainment,” this is the type of movie to which they are referring.  Promising Young Woman is about all kinds of issues important to our society today; the fact […]