Paul Thomas Anderson is a truly accomplished filmmaker whose offbeat st0ries offer unique, different views of our world. When he is on point, as with Boogie Nights (1997), he’s one of the best in the business. The trouble for me is […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Coco (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
Perhaps the greatest attribute of Pixar Studios is that they take chances. Risks. Surprising paths. Nowhere is this more apparent than with their latest film, Coco. It takes place on Mexico’s annual Day of the Dead, and concerns the souls of […]
Continue reading »Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
I am not a fan of the first Jumanji from back in 1995, which I feel is overproduced hokum with brutish special effects. And why does so much modern “adventure” mean putting children in peril so often? I don’t get it. So […]
Continue reading »The Post (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
With all the anti-media bias coming from the White House these days, a film like The Post could not be more timely. Governments keeping non-essential secrets and blatantly lying to the public is, and must be, fair game for all journalists […]
Continue reading »I, Tonya (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Revisionist history is a threat to any movie about real people, especially if they are still alive and kicking. As wildly entertaining as I, Tonya is, it certainly feels as if history is being rewritten for Tonya Harding’s behalf. Perhaps she […]
Continue reading »Molly’s Game (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
Some movies, no matter how intricately detailed or complexly structured they are, don’t connect with viewers because of what they are about. Molly’s Game is one of those movies for me. Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) is a woman in legal […]
Continue reading »Wonder (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Some stories are patently obvious in their intent. A glance at the plot delivers all one needs to know about that story, from what to expect to a telling indicator of how one will feel about it. They say “you […]
Continue reading »Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) ☆ ☆ 1/2
When this musical-comedy was released in December I had not seen any of the popular Pitch Perfect trilogy. But over the last few weeks my wife Barb and I have caught up to the first two on DVD and have seen […]
Continue reading »Father Figures (2017) ☆ ☆ ☆
Based on the preview I was expecting a very raunchy comedy, a genre which I don’t particularly like. Certainly elements of the perverse are present — and yet this movie has great heart and chemistry, too. The result is an […]
Continue reading »Downsizing (2017) ☆ ☆
Satire without a central target results in scattershot humor, and mostly unfunny movies. That seems to be what has occurred with Downsizing, the latest film from director Alexander Payne and his writing partner, Jim Taylor. Despite a promising premise, the resultant […]
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