Drama

Netflixable? An over-the-top Turkish “Oliver Twist,” “Paper Lives”

All over Istanbul, entrepreneurial scavengers pull junk carts, filling the canvas bags on those carts with recyclable cans, liquor bottles and especially cardboard. A lot of them are orphans, the street children of the city who grew up on this work, running carts for a go-between who pays them for their collections and sells those […]

Netflixable? An over-the-top Turkish “Oliver Twist,” “Paper Lives”

Drama

“Berlin Alexanderplatz”

There’s not a lot about Burhan Qurbani’s updating of “Berlin Alexanderplatz” that declares itself “adapted from one of the greatest novels of the 20th century.” It’s stately and long — nearly three hours. But Rainer Werner Fassbender’s definitive 1980 version, for German TV, ran for over 15 hours and was shown in theaters over multiple […]

Movie Review: Updating a classic — “Berlin Alexanderplatz”

Drama

Hereditary (2018)

When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter and grandchildren begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry, trying to outrun the sinister fate they have inherited. This is a film that had always been on the edge of my awareness especially as reviews came up when the film […]

Hereditary (2018)

Action

First Glance: “Riders of Justice”

Mads Mikkelsen? Sold! That’s all I needed to be interested in the upcoming film “Riders of Justice”. This Danish action-black comedy mix comes from writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen who previously worked with Mikkelsen on the underrated Western “The Salvation” and the astutely titled “Men & Chicken”. With “Riders” Jensen looks to be pulling from both […]

First Glance: “Riders of Justice”

Comedy

Golden Voices

Director Evgeny Ruman Staring Mariya Belkina, Vladimir Friedman, Evelin Hagoel Rated M Score 4/6 Victor and Raya Frenkel were the golden voices of the Soviet film dubbing for decades. All the western movies that reached Soviet screens were dubbed by them. In 1990, with the collapse of Soviet Union, the Frenkels decided to do Aliyah […]

Golden Voices

Drama

The Riot Club (2014)

Two first-year students (Sam Claflin, Max Irons) at Oxford University join a secret society – loosely based on the real life Bullingdon Club – and learn that their reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of one evening. This is another of those films where the premise sounded interesting. I also noticed they […]

The Riot Club (2014)

Drama

Movie Review: Irish lads Come of Age in a Toxic Time — “Here Are all the Young Men”

It takes a few minutes to get past the feeling that “Here Are the Young Men” isn’t a simplistic “Trainspotting” homage, some sort of boys-come-of-age, generationally-indulgent wank with an Irish accent. The characters are “types” — the rebellious lad entering the workforce with lust in his heart and a mouth always open for whatever pill […]

Movie Review: Irish lads Come of Age in a Toxic Time — “Here Are all the Young Men”