Good writing avoids cliché and provides characters with intelligent, interesting things to say. It can lift the mundane to the profound, and the routine to the special. Tom Flynn’s script for Gifted is largely exceptional, avoiding obvious benchmarks in favor of […]
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Logan (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Regular readers of these reviews will know that I am not a big fan of superhero movies, especially when these “heroes” are pitted against one another for no good reason. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good movie […]
Continue reading »Life (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
I’ve been looking forward to this movie since I first saw the preview months ago. It’s like John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), set on the International Space Station, with the terror of the first Alien (1979) thrown in for good measure. For […]
Continue reading »The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Another historical piece is The Zookeeper’s Wife, a drama set in Poland during the era of Nazi occupation in World War II. Like A United Kingdom, it follows a strong-willed woman through personal and social adversity; unlike that film, it does so […]
Continue reading »A United Kingdom (2017) ☆ ☆ 1/2
When a movie attempts to recreate recent human history it has two responsibilities — to portray its scenario with historical accuracy and to entertain while doing so. A couple of years ago Selma was lauded by many (including myself) as compelling […]
Continue reading »The Sense of an Ending (2017) ☆ ☆
Poor communication is at the heart of this British drama, wherein elderly Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent) is reconnected to past events and people when he is left — and then denied access to — a deceased friend’s diary. Tony’s efforts […]
Continue reading »The Lego Batman Movie (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
After the delightful surprise of The Lego Movie back in 2014 it was only a matter of time (and the matter of collecting a whole lot of rights to specific characters and movies) before Lego Batman made his return. It is […]
Continue reading »Get Out (2017) ☆ ☆
This is another of those movies that flummoxes me; it boasts real power and ingenuity, yet it’s also silly, derivative and not very believable. It is rather successful as a provocative experiment but not so much as enduring entertainment. And […]
Continue reading »Kong: Skull Island (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
The giant ape Kong is a mythic character known worldwide — although each time he appears on screen (1933, twice; 1962 and 1967 in Toho adventures; 1976; 2005) he is unique and re-imagined. Now, on his home of Skull Island, […]
Continue reading »Table 19 (2017) ☆ ☆
I’m not a big fan of wedding pictures. A great many movies have explored the melodramatic and comic potentials of these events, with universally recognized customs, traditions, situations and pratfalls. To give it credit, Table 19 explores one such wedding from […]
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