Of all the various types of horror films, those which play with religious belief and iconography are the most unsettling to me. I remember not being willing to see the original version of The Omen back when I was a teen […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Licorice Pizza (2021) ☆ ☆ ☆
Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the acclaimed filmmakers of our time, and most divisive. I’ve liked a couple of them (his early work, Hard Eight and Boogie Nights) and hated others (Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love). Mostly, I like Licorice Pizza, a coming-of-age […]
Continue reading »Nightmare Alley (2021) ☆ ☆ 1/2
As handsomely mounted and slickly filmed as any period drama in recent memory, this grotesque foray into the depths of human nature and depravity is certainly something to see. It is a remake of a popular and well regarded 1947 […]
Continue reading »Minari (2020) ☆ ☆
A year ago, Minari was a favorite at the Oscars, eventually winning one of its six nominations. I’ve finally caught up to it; I still haven’t seen most of last year’s contenders, much less those for 2021. But this is a […]
Continue reading »Werewolves Within (2021) ☆ ☆ 1/2
A common red flag for movie quality occurs when a movie is based on a video game. There are exceptions, of course, and this may be one of them. Happily, the film doesn’t play like a game — at least […]
Continue reading »Megalodon Rising (2021) 1/2
I should have known better. I really should have. But the artwork caught my attention and I’m a sucker for any movie about killer sharks. But once I saw that this movie was produced by The Asylum, purveyors of cinematic […]
Continue reading »Sing 2 (2021) ☆ ☆
My wife Barb and I journeyed to a local theater to watch this last month. Barb had finally seen the first one, and wanted to see the sequel. She liked them both. I was not very impressed with the first […]
Continue reading »Don’t Look Up (2021) ☆
I can’t believe it’s been more than a month since I have last posted. Sorry about that. I saw Don’t Look Up about a month ago and I’ve been thinking about it, off and on, for much of that time. It’s […]
Continue reading »West Side Story (2021) ☆ ☆ ☆
I’m somewhat biased against this new version of West Side Story because I love the first one so much. I think the music score and songs for West Side Story are the greatest, bar none, of any musical I have ever heard, […]
Continue reading »Encanto (2021) ☆ ☆ ☆
Disney studios is diversifying its animation and a prime example is Encanto. Not only is the studio employing a strong Latin flavor, it is telling this story from a primarily female perspective. Sure, many Disney tales are female-centric, but most of […]
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