Women are stepping up to action roles this summer, from Gal Gadot and Charlize Theron to Kate Mara and Mandy Moore. Now it’s Halle Berry’s turn, playing a mother whose young son is kidnapped in Kidnap. Its blunt, prosaic title is […]
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War of the Planet of the Apes (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The first cycle of five Planet of the Apes films in the 1960s and ’70s was pretty good; the first one was an instant classic and the others told a provocative, fascinating alternate future history. Now a trilogy of films resetting […]
Continue reading »The Big Sick (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
Stand-up comedians have it tough. Especially when the stand-up comedian is from Pakistan and has parents who are determined that he remain faithful to his heritage above all else. This comedy-drama’s most poignant moment occurs when Kumail Nanjiani (playing himself) […]
Continue reading »The Little Hours (2017) ☆ ☆
What I took for a wacky anti-religious comedy actually has its roots in classical literature: The Little Hours (“Hours” is supposed to be pronounced as “Whores,” for reasons which should become clear) is based upon the first story of the third […]
Continue reading »Dunkirk (2017) ☆ ☆
I had high hopes for Dunkirk, although I felt that the preview displayed a strange lack of scope. I thought that the film itself would address this, but I was startled to find that it does not. To my surprise and […]
Continue reading »The Thing (1982) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
What, you may ask, is a 1982 title doing in Recent Releases? 2017 is the 35th anniversary of several classic science-fiction and horror films, five of which were being screened at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, Maryland in […]
Continue reading »The Beguiled (2017) ☆ ☆
Speaking of Clint Eastwood (who I referred to in my review of Maudie), possibly his oddest starring film is the 1971 Civil War drama The Beguiled, which this film remakes with Colin Farrell in Eastwood’s role of Union soldier John McBurney […]
Continue reading »Maudie (2017) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Yet another movie that is off-putting is a Canadian film, Maudie, which tells the story of how shy, introverted Maud Lewis (Sally Hawkins) boldly moves out on her own, hires herself out as a cleaning woman to a grumpy fisherman (Ethan […]
Continue reading »Beatriz at Dinner (2017) ☆ ☆
This movie sort of threw me; weeks after seeing it I’m still not sure what to think of it. Written by Mike White, it follows a holistic healer, Beatriz (Salma Hayek), who is invited to stay at a fancy dinner […]
Continue reading »Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Disney’s unusual and immensely popular Pirates of the Caribbean series has now reached its fifth, and hopefully final, installment. It has defied expectations and provided spectacular sights for fourteen years now, and with its conclusion that takes place ten years after […]
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