John Carney has done it again. The writer-director of Once (2007) and Begin Again (2013) has delivered another enthralling movie about the creation and joy of music. I gave both of those other films four stars — I think Begin Again was the […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Unusual historical biographies constitute a wonderful tidal pool of sorts off of mainstream filmmaking because they introduce people who might otherwise remain unknown to multitudes, and they illustrate how different — and similar — people are in different places and […]
Continue reading »My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I enjoyed My Big Fat Greek Wedding back in 2002, and the same is true for this long-delayed sequel. The Portokalos family returns, older and slightly wiser, represented by a new generation (a daughter) who finds the whole ethnic extended family […]
Continue reading »Money Monster (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Movies about big money maneuvering are tricky to make — and sell — because, I think, the gray areas surrounding wealth and greed obfuscate their human stories. Think about how many films you’ve seen that chart how someone honestly becomes […]
Continue reading »The Meddler (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Highly personal character-driven films really rely on the character in question to be interesting enough — or quirky enough, sexy enough, scary enough or something else enough — to keep our attention through the minutiae of their lives. I’m on […]
Continue reading »Mother’s Day (2016) ☆ ☆
Director Garry Marshall has made a third or fourth career out of making movies based on sentimental holidays. He’s made Valentine’s Day (2010), New Year’s Eve (2011) and now Mother’s Day. Can’t wait for Flag Day or Arbor Day. Marshall’s […]
Continue reading »Captain America: Civil War (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Another big superhero movie comes to town, and once again I cannot get too excited. Comic book fans love this stuff, but it seems about as arbitrary to me as the world of magic, where anything can happen at any […]
Continue reading »A Hologram for the King (2016) ☆ ☆ ☆
Part culture clash, part character study, A Hologram for the King is a complex film built upon a very thin premise. The premise is that an Information Technology salesman (Tom Hanks) journeys to Saudi Arabia to persuade its ruler to purchase […]
Continue reading »The Lunatic’ler (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Most of what I watch, and what I think most movie-goers watch, is mainstream entertainment. The stuff that costs millions of dollars to produce, dominates the entertainment landscape and sometimes actually creeps into the culture. But for every mainstream movie […]
Continue reading »Criminal (2016) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Criminal is the second Ryan Reynolds personality-switching movie in the last two years; the third, if you count Deadpool (the other was Self/Less). If there really is such a thing as a personality-switching genre, then Reynolds has absolutely cornered it. However, […]
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