Film – Chuck Koplinski

Call me a curmudgeon, but I was one of the few who weren’t fully enamored with The Lego Movie when it hit movie theaters in 2014. While it did have a clever plot and a worthwhile theme – that is, for a feature-length commercial – I found its manic pace and spastic visual style tiresome. […]

Anyone who’s ever had a dog has asked the question, “I wonder what they’re thinking?” Lasse Hallstrom’s A Dog’s Purpose does its level best to answer this query, and the results are less than satisfactory. Seems as though they think that kissing is an act in which humans look for food in each other’s mouths […]

Much like a kaleidoscope that provides rapidly changing perspectives, Pablo Larrain’s Jackie gives us a wide variety of glimpses into the life of Jacqueline Kennedy as the first lady tries to come to terms with her place in the world after her husband’s assassination. Eschewing the traditional structure of the Hollywood biopic, the film careens […]

Of course I can’t be for certain, but I can’t imagine that even in his wildest dreams Ray Kroc could have conceived that McDonald’s restaurants would have the impact on the world that they do today. With 36,615 locations worldwide and having posted a $25 billion profit for 2015, it’s estimated that 68 million people […]

Much like Ron Howard, Ben Affleck is an old school, workman-like director. Give him any script, and he’s likely to come up with a competently made movie. He has no overarching theme that runs throughout his work, he has no distinctive visual style, and while his films have been entertaining, none of them require much […]

Theodore Melfi’s Hidden Figures is the sort of sanitized history lesson that sets out to right wrongs by presenting a story infused with good intentions and a sense of righteousness. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this approach, other than the fact that it doesn’t go far enough in portraying the abuse and neglect its three […]

Is that all there is? That was my reaction to Morten Tyldum’s Passengers, a bloated space adventure that hopes to get by on its looks – those of its stars Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, as well as the stunning production design by Guy Hendrix Dyas – and little else. Without question, the film is […]

Positive buzz has been growing steadily for Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea since its debut at last spring’s Sundance Film Festival, as critics and major film groups have been falling all over themselves to praise the movie and those involved in it. So, Manchester came to me with the onus of great expectations, some […]

I have to admit, I was skeptical where Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was concerned. As a prequel to the original film released in 1977, now referred to as Chapter IV: A New Hope, this smacked of being nothing more than a pure cash grab. After all, viewers know going in how this is […]

There’s a hypnotic quality to Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, a sense of foreboding that grows heavier as we progress down the dark roads of its two narratives. This will end badly, you know it, and yet you can’t take your eyes off the screen. The director’s first film, A Single Man, had a similar quality […]

I’m often asked if I have any favorite filmmakers or actors, and if I do, if I go easy on them in the reviews I write of their work. Personally, the opposite is true – if anything, I’m harder on them because my expectations for their work are higher. So, perhaps my hopes for Warren […]

Robert Zemeckis’ Allied is a film that is concerned about appearances, both in terms of its characters as well as the production itself. Artifice is what drives the film in terms of locale, its two gorgeous leads, and what binds its two protagonists together – although both of them begin as spies, you’re not quite […]