My friend Pete Jacelone has made what I consider to be his best movie yet, one which premiered last night at the Anthology Film Archive in New York City. It is his second of three planned serial killer outings; the […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Cats (2019) ☆ ☆
Yes, Cats is among the strangest films of this, or any other, year. Pretty much everything you’ve read about it (if, indeed, you have been reading about this particular cat-tastrophe) is true. And yet . . . I kind of […]
Continue reading »Knives Out (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Whodunits with large groups of unlikable characters leave me rather cold, but writer-director Rian Johnson has found a way to sweeten the pot with some very clever plotting. The story is consistently surprising, beautifully edited and builds very strongly in […]
Continue reading »Star Wars, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The final chapter of the trilogy which concludes the epic Star Wars trilogies has finally arrived, and it is a bit underwhelming. Much like Return of the Jedi was back in 1983, I feel obliged to remind everyone. It is […]
Continue reading »The Good Liar (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Of course I love movies of all kinds and varieties, but I am not so crazy about films in which no one can be trusted. Mysteries and thrillers in which everyone is suspect — even the narrator or lead character […]
Continue reading »Bombshell (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Some movies barely contain enough decent material to merit filming — or fail to deliver even that much entertainment. Thankfully others, such as Bombshell, burst with rich storylines, deep characters and creative energy to spare. I had trepidations about this […]
Continue reading »Richard Jewell (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Yet another true life story comes to theaters, elucidating a largely unknown or forgotten chapter of history. In this case it is the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta, in which security guard Richard Jewell was first celebrated as a hero […]
Continue reading »Dark Waters (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Mark Ruffalo is starting to become known as a crusader. He crusaded against a serial killer in Zodiac, child molesting priests in Spotlight, and now takes on a polluting chemical company in Dark Waters. Coincidentally, this is Ruffalo’s second cinematic […]
Continue reading »Charlie’s Angels (2019) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The “Charlie’s Angels” premise has always been a peculiar one for me. Three lovely, smart women, guided by an unseen man’s instructions, kick butt and save the world. It’s an empowering concept, allowing the women to use their brains and […]
Continue reading »The Irishman (2019) ☆ ☆ ☆
Martin Scorsese returns to familiar territory with his newest drama, The Irishman. It is a story about organized labor, and the organized crime that accompanied the rise of the Teamsters in the 1950s and ’60s. It is about the fate […]
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