Some movies barely contain enough decent material to merit filming — or fail to deliver even that much entertainment. Thankfully others, such as Bombshell, burst with rich storylines, deep characters and creative energy to spare. I had trepidations about this […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Richard Jewell (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Yet another true life story comes to theaters, elucidating a largely unknown or forgotten chapter of history. In this case it is the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta, in which security guard Richard Jewell was first celebrated as a hero […]
Continue reading »Dark Waters (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Mark Ruffalo is starting to become known as a crusader. He crusaded against a serial killer in Zodiac, child molesting priests in Spotlight, and now takes on a polluting chemical company in Dark Waters. Coincidentally, this is Ruffalo’s second cinematic […]
Continue reading »Charlie’s Angels (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The “Charlie’s Angels” premise has always been a peculiar one for me. Three lovely, smart women, guided by an unseen man’s instructions, kick butt and save the world. It’s an empowering concept, allowing the women to use their brains and […]
Continue reading »The Irishman (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Martin Scorsese returns to familiar territory with his newest drama, The Irishman. It is a story about organized labor, and the organized crime that accompanied the rise of the Teamsters in the 1950s and ’60s. It is about the fate […]
Continue reading »Joker (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Let’s give this movie some credit: it is perhaps the definitive examination of a character forced into madness by elements completely out of his control. Everything awful that can happen to Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) does, and it shouldn’t be […]
Continue reading »The Addams Family (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Charles Addams’ creation called The Addams Family made its debut as a comic strip in 1938, then most famously ran as a television show from 1964 to 1966. Three more television series followed (two of them animated), plus two made-for-television […]
Continue reading »A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
As much as I love movies, there are a few with which I simply do not connect, no matter how well they are made. I think this is one of them. This is because I have never developed an appreciation […]
Continue reading »Ford v Ferrari (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
While the true incidents of this auto racing story occurred when I was very young, I actually remember some of the drivers, like Dan Gurney and Bruce McLaren. I don’t recall Ken Miles, who disappeared before I was aware of […]
Continue reading »21 Bridges (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Historically, many people feel that the 1970s were the halcyon years for gritty crime dramas, when filmmakers like Sidney Lumet and William Friedkin and Martin Scorsese were making great and nearly great movies about cops and criminals. I do not […]
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