Braids, French and other, loom large in the visuals of BLACK WIDOW, and it is an apt metaphor. The ultra-femininity of long, flowing hair rigorously trained into orderly rows of tightly disciplined tresses echoes the rigorous training given to ultra-feminine assassin-turned-Avenger Natasha Romanoff, the eponymous super-heroine in this her first spinoff from the Marvel Universe.… Read More »
TOO LATE (2021)
TOO LATE is a noir fable about the dark side of show biz. Deadpan and droll in its exploration of monsters and their enablers, it doesn’t so much expose anything new about what people are willing to do in order to succeed as present it with a puckish flair and a wicked sense of irony.… Read More »
F9: The Fast Saga
I get it. After eight installments of souped-up cars zooming (in the old sense) across the screen, the stakes are very high in F9: THE FAST SAGA, a franchise that is dedicated to finding new ways to crash, crumple, and otherwise decimate automobiles. And so including a Pontiac Fiero tooling around in space should not… Read More »
RISE AGAIN: TULSA AND THE RED SUMMER
Anticipating the centennial of the Tulsa race riots and massacre in 1921, Dawn Porter wanted to do more that remember that criminally ignored chapter in American history. The resulting documentary, RISE AGAIN: TULSA AND THE RED SUMMER, recounts a part of our history that had, similarly, been ignored by all but the survivors, and their… Read More »
LUCA
With LUCA, Disney/Pixar takes us back under the sea with a film that makes no secret about wanting to tug at our heartstrings. Using sentiment and slapstick, it explores not only bullying, childhood bonding, and the importance of expanding one’s horizons, but also that delicate struggle between safeguarding one’s children, and letting them find their… Read More »
THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD
When last we saw ex-Triple A rated bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), he had succeeded in getting notorious hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) to the Hague to testify against a genocidal dictator (Gary Oldman). He had also taken a bullet for Darius, which is part of a bodyguard’s job. It would have been better… Read More »
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
Based on the remarkable life of James Brooke, EDGE OF THE WORLD is an introspective film about how an Englishman became the Raja of Sulawak. Such was his fame in Victorian England that Joseph Conrad used him as the model for the title character in his novel, Lord Jim, and rich women proposed marriage to… Read More »
THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT
It is the way of franchises that, with a few notable exceptions, they sequel themselves into diminished returns that eventually test even the most ardent fans. And so it is with THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT, a pale reminder of what we loved about the original, with no actual reason to love… Read More »
A QUIET PLACE 2
There is something wonderfully cathartic about spending an hour-and-a-half or so being kept on the edge of one’s seat in a state of suspenseful terror. And thus does John Krasinski’s A QUIET PLACE 2 deliver. As excellent as it would have been as an entertainment if it had enjoyed its original, pre-pandemic release date, the… Read More »
DRUNK BUS
Michael (Charlie Tahan), the nebbishy hero of DRUNK BUS, needs no metaphor to describe his life in 2006. He is living it. After four years of driving the endless loop that is the overnight campus bus route at the Kent Institute of Technology his whole exitance has become a treadmill. What started as a part-time… Read More »
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