Louisa May Alcott’s most famous tale has been filmed numerous times, often with great results — I gave the 1994 version four stars. This particular version jumps around in time, which I found rather distracting, but writer-director Greta Gerwig develops […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
I daresay nobody was more surprised that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) was as good as it is than me; I didn’t like the original Jumanji (1995) very much, but the reboot was both visually exciting and dramatically sound […]
Continue reading »1917 (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
How many classic World War I films can you name? I’ll list a few — All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Paths of Glory (1957) and 1917 (2019). I don’t count Wings (1927), The Blue Max (1966) or Zeppelin […]
Continue reading »Like a Boss (2020) ☆ ☆
This is another one of those crass, rude and lewd comedies which I do not care for very much. Its strongest asset is that it is female-centric, led by believable, empathetic female characters, with a story that eventually leads to […]
Continue reading »Underwater (2020) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Claustrophobic horror films are usually fun, and you cannot get much more claustrophobic than six-and-a-half miles beneath the ocean’s surface, in the deepest area of the Pacific Ocean. This film is rather derivative, however, something along the lines of The […]
Continue reading »The Cannibal Killer: The Real Story of Jeffrey Dahmer (2020) ☆ ☆ ☆
My friend Pete Jacelone has made what I consider to be his best movie yet, one which premiered last night at the Anthology Film Archive in New York City. It is his second of three planned serial killer outings; the […]
Continue reading »Cats (2019) ☆ ☆
Yes, Cats is among the strangest films of this, or any other, year. Pretty much everything you’ve read about it (if, indeed, you have been reading about this particular cat-tastrophe) is true. And yet . . . I kind of […]
Continue reading »Knives Out (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Whodunits with large groups of unlikable characters leave me rather cold, but writer-director Rian Johnson has found a way to sweeten the pot with some very clever plotting. The story is consistently surprising, beautifully edited and builds very strongly in […]
Continue reading »Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The final chapter of the trilogy which concludes the epic Star Wars trilogies has finally arrived, and it is a bit underwhelming. Much like Return of the Jedi was back in 1983, I feel obliged to remind everyone. It is […]
Continue reading »The Good Liar (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Of course I love movies of all kinds and varieties, but I am not so crazy about films in which no one can be trusted. Mysteries and thrillers in which everyone is suspect — even the narrator or lead character […]
Continue reading »