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 »
CRUELLA
It’s somewhere In the third act that CRUELLA goes from being a frothy Disney confection to a Guy Ritchie knock off. Until then, this origin story about the woman who wanted to turn 101 dalmatians into outer wear is pure eye candy with a villainess more deliciously reprehensible than Cruella herself, and even more overdressed.… Read More »
VOYAGERS
Even though there is something worthy in concocting a tale where the philosophical conundrums of free will versus determinism vie with a rumination on human nature red in tooth and claw, VOYAGERS is, at best, a moribund Kubrick redux meets The Lord of the Flies. It confuses slow pacing with gravitas, and whispered dialogue with… Read More »
GODZILLA VS. KONG
If there were special awards for truth in advertising when it comes to movie titles, GODZILLA VS. KONG would sweep them. Essentially, that is all there is to this extravagant spree of special effects and occasional camp. The plot, and there is a great deal of it, is completely subservient to upping the ante when… Read More »
THE COURIER
Based on a true story, THE COURIER takes us back to the Cold War and the palpable threat of nuclear annihilation. Once again, we are reminded that it was as much luck as it was diplomacy or mutually assured destruction that prevented World War III. In this case, the good luck of two people for… Read More »
CHAOS WALKING
CHAOS WALKING is a somber affair told in muddy earth tones and moribund action. Based on the book The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, it presents New World in the year 2257, a distant planet colonized by religious humans who have brought with them much of what they should have left back… Read More »
THE MIDNIGHT SKY
It feels right to have a film about the end of the world be a cold thing, literally and figuratively. And so it is with THE MIDNIGHT SKY, a story set three decades or so in the future is an uncertain blend of personal regret with planetary destruction. Set both in the arctic and in… Read More »
MINARI
MINARI is a powerful contemplation of family, faith, and the American Dream. Seen through the lens of 7-year-old David (Alan S. Kim in a stunning, unselfconscious turn), whose Korean-born parents have moved him, his older sister Anne (Noel Cho), and eventually their grandmother (scene-stealing Youn Yuh-jung) to rural 1980s Arkansas in search of a life… Read More »
WONDER WOMAN 1984
At one point in WONDER WOMAN 1984, it’s as if we are is dared to think of the phrase “cat fight” as Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) tangles with one of the two villains of the piece, played by Kristen Wiig. I don’t quite know what to make of that in this troubled film that is… Read More »
NEWS OF THE WORLD
NEWS OF THE WORLD is a somber and sober tale of post-Civil War Texas with few surprises as it wends its way through the mythos of the Old West, unfolding as it does as a metaphor. Or is it an allegory? Perhaps a microcosm of the world’s ills, both then and now? All those elements… Read More »
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