Film – Chuck Koplinski

The most surprising thing about Creed II is that it actually did surprise me … once. An out-of-the-blue appearance from a character long forgotten actually caused me to gasp. This in and of itself is a shock because if the films in the Rocky series are anything, they’re as predictable as the sun rising in […]

“Stupid is as stupid does.” That famous Gump-ism swirled ‘round and ‘round in my mind as I watched Jason Reitman’s not-as-good-as-it-should-be biopic, The Front Runner, play out. Chronicling Gary Hart’s rapid fall out of the 1988 presidential race, the film casts a wide net when it comes to who is to blame for the scandal […]

There’s a vital, timely message of hope contained in Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased. At first glance it appears to be about one young man’s struggle with coming to terms with his sexual identity – a Christian teen raised in the Bible Belt by a conservative preacher and mother wrestling with feelings of homosexuality – but […]

At its best, Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy captures the sense of frustration, rage and helplessness parents feel when they see one of their children caught in the cycle of addiction. Good intentions mean nothing, questions go unanswered, worthwhile rehab centers are hard to find, and the realization that relapses are a part of recovery […]

It is with great regret that I report that Bohemian Rhapsody is not the film Queen fans have been waiting for, nor is it the one the band deserves. A rote exercise from the start, this by-the-numbers biopic is a thumbnail overview of the highs and lows the London quartet endured, playing out in such […]

After deciding to resurrect the Halloween franchise, director David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride expressed concern that they might embarrass themselves, that their efforts might not do justice to John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. Upon seeing their film — imaginatively titled Halloween — it’s obvious they weren’t using the original as a template for their […]

I have an old gray T-shirt. I can’t tell you how many times it’s been washed or how many times I’ve worn it. It’s always at the top of the pile in my dresser drawer and it is the one I grab when I need something comfortable to wear under another shirt or just want […]

I was speaking to a friend the other day about how we take the age we live in for granted. We punch 10 numbers into our cellphones and talk to people thousands of miles away and don’t give it a second thought. We have cures for diseases that were once fatal. And space travel? Well, […]

There’s a great deal to like in Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, the directorial debut from the actor. Cooper pulls off an Orson Welles, where in addition to acting in the film, he serves as one of its writers and producers. Good for him for having the clout to pull this off; however, the […]

A primal scream from today’s generation, Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation is a film that brims with anger, a work propelled by confusion and resentment that rages against the machine that is the internet and the hypocrisy that emerges when people’s backs are against the wall. Graphic in its violence and the sexual habits of its […]

I’m a fan of film noir and I’m not averse to a nice dark comedy. So Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor would seemingly be right up my alley, and, for the most part, it works. Simultaneously a parody of the genre as well as a fair-to-middlin’ example of it, the script written by Jessica Sharzer […]

As far as the Blumhouse Productions Conjuring series is concerned, the five movies that make up this franchise have been like money in the bank. A surprise hit in 2013, The Conjuring focused on real-life paranormal detectives Ed and Lorraine Warren dealing with a particularly nasty haunting. On a modest $20 million budget, it brought […]