No Time to Die is the 25th Bond movie and Daniel Craig’s final film as the suave superspy. Craig’s films started in 2006 with Casino Royal and the seeds planted in that film grew over Bond’s next three films and are at the center of his emotional/internal conflict in No Time to Die. The film […]
Photo by Pablo Larraín ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. Everyone wants to be wealthy, live in a palace and be part of a royal family. Indeed, there’s financial independence but it’s the freedom that is often lost. Because every move of the royal family members will be under scrutiny, highly publicized and photographed by […]
Nashville Film Festival 2021: “Spencer”
The Turkish police procedural “Grudge” toys with the idea of really saying something blunt and chilling about Turkish justice, Turkish policing and the powerlessness of The People, and only loses its nerve in the third act. The ending is the final “cop out” of this decently-plotted Around the World with Netflix thriller, titled “Kin” in […]
Netflixable? Turkish Thriller Only Gives Up its “Grudge” at the End
I do go into detail on the film’s numerous plot points. So if you haven’t seen the film, I would watch it first and then give this a read. But if you have seen the film, enjoy my thoughts/review of the film. My brother Adam and I have started doing Top 10 episodes […]
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
Titane is a complex film, one that doesn’t hold back in its portrayal of unconditional love. The bold and sometimes intense imagery of the human body put on display in the film is an unwavering/uncompromising vision. That is the vision of the director, Julia Ducournau. Released to critical acclaim and even winning the palm’d’or at the […]
‘Titane’ and the Politics of Dancing
Luisa is an elegant woman living in a spacious and luxurious home, surrounded by servants to do her every bidding, including an on-call masseuse to rub her cares away. Luisa and her family have a cushy life, their wealth and status apparent. But that doesn’t mean they never have troubles. Luisa has just returned home […]
There isn’t much funny about this film billed as a comedy, even with a great cast including Melissa McCarthy, Chris O’Dowd and Kevin Klein. The film has some sweet moments but it is more depressing than anything else. The one thing this film can provide is the […]
New from Al and Linda Lerner on Movies and Shakers: The Starling
Something of a blast, John Landis’ 1981 horror comedy is one of these few films that gets just about everything right. Written in the 60’s, after an experience while working on WWII action movie Kelly’s Heroes, Landis had shelved the result while his own stature grew via hits like Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House and […]
An American Werewolf in London
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Life in the 21st century is more like being on the phones and laptops with no human interaction whatsoever. Even passing by restaurants, you find people staring at the blue screen more often than using words. It’s sad but becoming our reality. And things can only change if we […]
Benediction is the story of English poet, writer and soldier Siegfried Sassoon. He was decorated for bravery on the Western Front, and went on to become one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry vividly described the horrors of the trenches while satirizing the patriotic pretensions that Sassoon believed were responsible for a fueling […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. A true artist never connects with the real world. In fact, he/she creates one’s own where all others can join in to admire the brilliance of their craft. Louis Wain (Benedict Cumberbatch) is extremely talented. He is qualified to do all sorts of jobs, if he wishes to. His […]
TIFF 2021: “The Electrical Life of Louis Wain”
What a strange and unusual film. Somewhere vaguely in Europe, mid-20th century, Albert is employed to look after Mia. Mia, just a ten year old girl, us forcibly shut-in, even the apartment’s shutters stay closed, casting a gloomy, and often creepy, atmosphere over the apartment’s two solitary dwellers. Despite the isolation, the two are not […]
Well damn. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe, a disgraced cop who’s been busted down to dispatch duty, manning the 911 desk until he can clear his name. On his last shift before he’ll get his day in court, he takes a call that will change his life. On the other end of the phone, Emily whispers […]
Well that was unexpected. Director Michael Pearce takes a sci-fi action thriller road trip movie and subverts your every expectation, giving us panicky thrills of another kind. Malik Khan (Riz Ahmed) is a Marine who’s been working back to back top-secret missions, too busy saving the world to see his sons, who live with their […]
Cutting out the cancer. So this is about a woman named Madison (Annabelle Wallis). She has the worst sleep paralysis of all time because she slips away to another place entirely and witnesses gruesome murders. They’re not just bad dreams, though, they are actually happening. I knew three things about this going in: 1. This […]
The Seattle Supernatural Slasher – Malignant (2021)
TIFF: Ruth Paxton’s flinty first feature uses horror expectations to tell an uncomfortable character-centric story.
‘A Banquet’ Review: Overstuffed and Underfed, This Chilling Debut Bites Off More Than It Can Chew
The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off with a rocky start. However, the first films to initiate the festival were anything but disappointing. As in Heaven (Du som er i himlen), Tea Lindeburg’s directorial debut, was nothing short of an artistic dream. On a farm in the 1800s, a young 14-year-old girl named Lise (Flora […]
‘As in Heaven’ Review: “The Curse of Femininity”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. There are always moments when we think we are misunderstood, blamed and judged for something we had nothing to do with. Also, people think if we are emotional, loud and extremely cheerful or angry from the outside, we are bad and should be ignored. Evan Hansen (reprising his role […]
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 5 out of 5. Japanese cinema is always exquisite, deep and insightful. It knows how to play with words and carefully translate them into actions. And actors? Oh boy! How marvelous they all are. If you find me exaggerating, then you probably haven’t seen “Drive My Car” yet. Yusuke and Oto are a […]
Toward the end of Noah Baumbach’s 2019 film “Marriage Story,” Charlie, played by Adam Driver, breaks into an emotional rendition of Sondheim’s “Being Alive” from the musical “Company” while at a restaurant with friends, facing the dissolution of his marriage. It’s a beautiful scene—my favorite in the entire film, actually—and one that made me immediately […]