Cinemascoping

After seeing Morgan Neville’s wonderful new documentary about children’s television host Fred Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, I was left with a great many conflicting emotions.  I regret not ever having watched the show while growing up.  I had no time for such childish fare what with cool shows like Sesame Street and The […]

Some films have no purpose other than to entertain. There’s no intent to make a grand political or social statement, the whole goal is to put smiles on faces.  Charles Stone III’s Uncle Drew’s such a movie and, for the most part, it succeeds in what it sets out to do.  While the movie is predictable and its […]

“Witch” – “Evildoer”- “Monster” – “Disgrace”- “Vile Human Being” – “Anti-American” All of these words are heard describing Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the beginning of Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s engaging and informative documentary RBG, a work that will likely not sway those who ignorantly oppose her role in our system of […]

 8 a Dim Echo of 11 One of the reasons Stephen Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 was such a success is that it contains am effortless sense of cool from a bygone era.  Perfectly cast, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and the rest of their crew had just the right amount of swagger to make their […]

Let’s be honest, directors Anthony and Joe Russo as well as producer Kevin Feige have painted themselves into a corner where Avengers: Infinity War is concerned.  What with an 18 movie run-up to this event and more than 20 superheroes to juggle in a single film, is there really anyway this could live up to the […]

Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein’s I Feel Pretty couldn’t be more timely.  Dealing with the issues of body shaming and low self-esteem, both perpetuated by the constant parading of unrealistic examples of physical perfection in the media, their film tackles this issue head on.  Amy Schumer stars as Renee Bennett, a young, withdrawn woman who’s been dealing […]

I missed out on the whole Mad Men thing (Yes, I know, shame on me; its on the massive list of things I should watch), so I was unprepared for everything that is Jon Hamm. While I have seen him do a few comedic cameos and enjoyed his H & R Block commercials, I didn’t realize […]

John Cullen’s Chappaquiddick is a film that’s long overdue.  This recounting of the tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne and Senator Ted Kennedy’s involvement in it couldn’t be more timely, what with today’s constant manipulation of the media by the powers-that-be.  The filmmaker covers all of the familiar points of this case in a workman-like, albeit cursory manner that […]

Steven Soderbergh is our most restless director. He’s done all-star epics (Ocean’s 11), socially relevant dramas (Traffic), Oscar-winning features (“Erin Brockovich), experimental films (“Bubble”) and has even retired from making feature films at the age of 50 only to return to them four years later.  He shot his latest, “Unsane,” on an I-Phone over the […]

With two films under his belt, it’s obvious that director Alex Garland has a keen eye, is able to create a slowly developing sense of doom and is eager to tackle intriguing sci-fi material.  He also has problems bringing his films to a satisfactory conclusion.  His latest, Annihilation, follows the same pattern as his debut […]

If good intentions were all that were needed to craft a successful motion picture, Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris, would be one of the finest films in the director’s long and storied career.  In bringing the real-life heroics of Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler and Spencer Stone (the three young Americans who foiled a terrorist […]

 A funny thing happened amidst the hoopla that was Super Bowl LII.  Netflix ran the first trailer for The Cloverfield Paradox, the next entry in J.J. Abrams unorthodox sci-fi franchise…and then they announced it would premiere immediately after the game.  Whether this sort of surprise release strategy results in a large number of initial viewers […]