In Theaters. Four new movies come wafting into town this week. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing mostly remains to be seen. While two of the titles qualify as art/indie, I’ve only seen one of them — and I recommend it. I shall explain. Under normal circumstances, just about anything from […]
In Theaters. We get four new movies this week. Two of these are of the art title variety — one is pretty terrific and the other is completely terrific. Both are of the “not for everbody” school. On the other hand, there are two mainstream movies. Both of these may well be of the “not […]
As promised, here is the place I will comment on the Oscars as they happen. Feel free to chime in throughout the evening…or not. UPDATED: Well, I said I wasn’t going to do a post-mortem on the Oscars, and I’m really not all that interested in doing one. OK, in my perfect world, […]
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New Movie Releases
Starring: Jermaine Clement, Taika Waititi, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, Stuart Rutherford
The Story: The film invites you — and a never seen documentary crew — to spend some time with a houseful of old-school vampires who are trying to be modern. The Lowdown: Surprisingly fresh and funny — despite its dubious mockumentary approach — and blessed with appealingly goofy characters and even a few bona fide thrills.
Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Adrian Martinez, Gerald McRaney, Rodrigo Santoro
The Story: A con man and his one-time protege — and romantic interest — get tangled up in a scheme. The Lowdown: A clever and honestly surprising movie that’s held back due to the weak chemistry and miscasting of its two leads.
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Special Screenings This Week
Starring: Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton, Franklin Pangborn
"Immorality may be fun, but it isn’t fun enough to take the place of 100-percent virtue and three square meals a day,” opines Max Plunkett (Edward Everett Horton) on more than one occasion in Ernst Lubitsch’s Design for Living. The film then goes out of its way to prove him wrong, which might seem a…
Starring: Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles, Boris Karloff, Edward Van Sloan, Dwight Frye
In Brief: James Whale’s Frankenstein was only the second entry in the first wave of cinematic horror, but it’s also what can be called the first modern horror picture. By that I mean that the film is unapologetic about its horror content. There is none of the reticence of Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) here. Frankenstein is a film that…
Starring: Max Adrian, Christopher Gable, Maureen Pryor, David Collings
In Brief: For years, Ken Russell cited Song of Summer (1968) as his favorite of his films. That’s understandable — and I wouldn’t say it was wrong (to the degree that a favorite can even be wrong) — but I would caution against taking his word on any given film as etched in stone, because…
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Robert Downey Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom Hollander, Nelsan Ellis
In Brief: The Soloist is not a bad movie, but the best that can be said of it is that it qualifies as an honorable failure. Everything about The Soloist screams quality production — highly rated director Joe Wright, even more highly rated stars Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. and a message-heavy “true-life” story. What more could…
X-Awards