Film – Chuck Koplinski

Having employed a ferociously violent aesthetic in rebooting Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (2013), director Fede Alvarez takes a decidedly different approach with Don’t Breathe, an intriguing siege thriller that capitalizes on effective moments of suspense rather than the usual horror tropes to get audiences creeping towards the edge of their seats. Running a taut […]

A scene from Sausage Party. PHOTO COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES Not only does Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party have the greatest title in the history of cinema, it also features talking hot dogs, graphic scenes of various food items having sex, scads of racial stereotypes and a timely message about the state of international relations. Who’d a […]

Meryl Streep as the title role in Florence Foster Jenkins. Where a film like Florence Foster Jenkins is concerned, finding the right tone is key to its success. Director Stephen Frears knows a thing or two about creating the proper mood and intent of a piece (Philomena, High Fidelity), and his skill is key to […]

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad. There’s a great deal of potential (most of it wasted) in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which is Warner Brothers latest effort to get its stable of DC Comics characters on firm cinematic footing. Like most of the post-Christopher Nolan Dark Knight […]

Kristen Bell as Kiki, Mila Kunis as Amy and Kathryn Hahn as Carla in Bad Moms. PHOTO COURTESY STX Entertainment Having found success after writing the Hangover trilogy, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore set out to show that women can act just as stupidly as men with Bad Moms. Much to their own and their […]

In order for a horror film to work, it’s required that at certain points, its characters act … without thinking? I don’t want to use the word “stupid,” as I surely don’t know how I would behave if a horde of flesh-eating zombies were bearing down on me and I realize I just happened to […]

Bryan Cranston as Robert Mazur in The Infiltrator. PHOTO COURTESY BROAD GREEN PICTURES Has the increase in quality television affected the way we (or maybe it’s just me) watch films? For the last decade, many convincing arguments have been put forth that what with the coming of sprawling, multi-part, continuous series (The Sopranos, Game of […]

Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man. I’ve seen some very bad movies lately, but Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Swiss Army Man is by far the worst of the year, a film so misguided, confused and insulting that I sat slack-jawed over what I was witnessing. While I’m sure the movie was […]

Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan in The Legend of Tarzan. PHOTO COURTESY Warner Bros. Legendary film producer Darryl Zanuck once said, “The secret to success in Hollywood is giving the public what it wants before it knows it wants it.” In the spirit of that statement and in an effort to keep you ahead of the […]

Kevin Hart as Calvin Joyner and The Rock as Bob Stone in Central Intelligence. One of the most surprising developments in American popular film over the last decade is the emergence of Dwayne Johnson as a major star. Using his popularity in the WWE as a foundation – and successfully putting it behind him, as […]

Dory voiced by Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Dory. There’s no question that Pixar Animation radically changed the way big-screen cartoons were created, as well as what audiences should expect from them. These brightly told morality tales weren’t just for kids, as they spoke to concerns that touched upon not only childhood issues and trauma but […]

Andy Samberg as Conner in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. To be sure, Andy Samberg is an acquired taste. However, with his brilliant work on the cop show parody “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” he’s shown himself to be a comic with not just crackerjack timing and the willingness to look the fool but an uncommonly smart writer […]