There are rules for a Jason Statham film, at least the ones that inhabit that subgenre of action film that he has carved out for himself. A WORKING MAN follows all of them all, because a formula that (usually) works is worth respecting. They include Mr. Statham playing a decent man longing for a quiet… Read More »
CALL JANE — Phyllis Nagy Interview
Click here to listen to the interview. Breaking the law to do the right thing is a dilemma rife with dramatic possibilities, and that is the story of CALL JANE, a fictionalized story about real events. The Janes, as they were called, started as a collective that arranged safe abortions for women when the procedure… Read More »
CANDYMAN
CANDYMAN wants to do more than creep you out with mere gore. To that end, this sequel to the original does more than ignore the three subsequent films in that previous franchise, though it does, like those other films, drench the screen in blood from time to time. Here, though, the true horror that it… Read More »
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
The religious overtones of JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH come towards the end of this searing examination of racial politics during the 1960s. And when they arrive, in a sequence that is most assuredly a shout-out to the Last Supper, director/co-writer Shaka King has earned the right, and then some, to invoke the metaphor. The… Read More »
THE BIG SICK
You can’t blame Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon for thinking that the story of their romance had the makings of a great movie. Kumail (playing himself), a Pakistani immigrant doing stand-up comedy meets graduate student (in psychology, yet), Emily (doe-eyed but tart Zoe Kazan), when she “whoo hoos” him at one of his shows.… Read More »
THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT
As is the wont with these franchises based on young adult novels, THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT, the third in the series, begins where the last one left off. No flashback montage, no character narration bringing us up to date. Instead, there’s just a quick reminder that Jeanine is dead, and that everyone on screen is… Read More »
INSURGENT Keeps the DIVERGENT Franchise Puffing Along
The advantage of seeing outstanding actors in a middling film is that you can appreciate just how good they are on a whole new level. And INSURGENT is certainly a middling film, though that is an improvement on the last installment in this franchise, DIVERGENT. With a new director, Robert Schwentke, bringing Veronica Roth’s YA… Read More »
JUPITER ASCENDING. Not.
The Wachowskis know how to produce a spectacle. In that, they may very well be the cinematic heirs of Cecil B. DeMille, whose films featured showmanship of the highest caliber, but some of whose films could charitably be described as insubstantial. And such is the case with the space saga, JUPITER ASCENDING, a film chock-a-block… Read More »
A SOUND OF THUNDER
A SOUND OF THUNDER isn’t just a bad movie, it is one that is so hopelessly ridiculous, so relentlessly inept, that it sullies the art of filmmaking as a whole. It may have even knocked the concept of art itself down a few notches. That is also mangles a classic Ray Bradbury short story only… Read More »