Garnering nine Academy Award nominations, the Irish comedy-tragedy The Banshees of Inisherin has become one of 2022’s must-see movies. I missed it the first time around but finally saw it last night. It is not what I expected. Martin McDonagh’s film […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Living (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
It wasn’t until the opening credits rolled that I realized that Living was an English-language remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952). That makes it a big deal; I saw Ikiru in the early 1980s and immediately classified it as one of the greatest […]
Continue reading »The Woman King (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
Education is great — it is necessary as a foundation for knowledge of anything and everything in this world. But it is also highly selective. Until I saw The Woman King I was completely unaware of the African kingdom of Dahomey, […]
Continue reading »Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
Whoever decided to bring the fairy tale characters Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws to life on the big screen, and to do it in this fashion, was brilliant. I love these flamboyant kitty characters, the way they dance and […]
Continue reading »A Man Called Otto (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The story is simple: a very grumpy older man called Otto is fed up with life and wants to end his own, but he is constantly interrupted, mainly by new neighbors who are not scared away by his rudeness. Gradually […]
Continue reading »Dead for a Dollar (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
Forty to fifty years ago a bunch of new, young directors got their starts and made names for themselves, some of whom are still making acclaimed movies today. You know, names like Spielberg, Scorsese, Lucas, Friedkin, De Palma, Malick, etc. […]
Continue reading »Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
As much as I dislike the immense popularity and acclaim afforded to modern superhero movies (superheroes are not real!), I also have to admit that some of them are pretty good. Black Panther was pretty good. So is its sequel, […]
Continue reading »R. I. P. D. 2: Rise of the Damned (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
Sometimes movies surprise me. Remembering that I didn’t care at all for R. I. P. D., a supposedly comedic sci-fi / horror mashup from 2013, I was reluctant to see its belated sequel. But that’s what I was in the mood […]
Continue reading »The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
This documentary chronicles the eruption and aftermath on New Zealand’s Whakaari (White Island) in 2019, which resulted in the deaths of 22 tourists and guides who happened to be on the site at the wrong time. It is tightly edited […]
Continue reading »Empire of Light (2022) ☆ ☆ ☆
At one point during this film the lead character is described as schizophrenic. Unfortunately, that’s the problem with this movie. It has a great deal of merit as a love letter to cinema and the business of movie exhibition, yet […]
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