Review: Spenser Confidential (Netflix)
This Netflix title caught my eye because I was a fan of the TV series “Spenser for Hire” (starring the late Robert Urich) in the mid-1980s and was curious how…
Review: The Way Back
Ben Affleck was fresh out of rehab when filming began for The Way Back, and that had to make the process extra challenging, awkward, even painful - for the actor,…
Review: Corpus Christi (Boze Cialo)
Based on a true story, Corpus Christi is the tale of 20-year-old Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) who, just sprung from a violent juvenile detention center and heading for a new job,…
Review: Swallow
This R-rated psychological thriller was a complete surprise to me. In a good way. It's a Stepford Wives meets #Girlpower story that has you yelling at the screen and wondering…
Review: Incitement
Talk about a film that is hard to watch! In this political thriller, you're watching the evolution of assassin Yigal Amir (Yehuda Nahari Halevi), a law student who decides that…
Review: Balloon (Ballon)
Seems like all I'm seeing lately are film based on true stories. In this one, two families living in Cold War East Germany in 1979 plan a daring escape to…
Review: EMMA.
I generally don’t go out of my way to see a period drama (especially one with a period in the title), and I never got around to reading much Jane…
Review: Ordinary Love
Ordinary Love offers a master class in quiet, meaningful, relatable and subtle performances from two veteran actors, Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread) and Liam Neeson (Taken, Schindler’s List). They play Joan…
Review: Olympic Dreams
Olympic Dreams is an odd little indie meet-cute that takes elements of a romantic dramedy, sports movie and documentary, puts them in a blender, and spits out an uneven story…
Snapshot Review: The Photograph
The Photograph is a fairly straightforward romantic drama that is slow to develop and fails to rise above ho-hum despite its very likeable and very attractive leads - Issa Rae…
Review: Beanpole (Дылда)
War is hell. And life after war is, too. Most war films concentrate on the effects that the carnage has on men, but this Russian melodrama looks at how the women…
Review: Downhill
If you head into Downhill expecting a raucous, LOL comedy filled with humorous gaffes and charming banter between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell, you’re in for an uphill climb. Downhill…
Review: The Assistant
The Assistant is the #MeToo movement’s searing indie alternative to Bombshell. It’s a slow observational drama that follows a day in the life of a junior assistant to a powerful…
Review: The Rhythm Section
Think of your heart as the drums, your breathing as the bass. That’s pretty much my only takeaway of note from The Rhythm Section and I’m still not sure how…
Review: The Last Full Measure
I really wish I could bestow high critical honors on The Last Full Measure because I totally support what it aims to do: share the story of a true American…