Review: Breaking
Watching this "based on a true story" drama, you can't help but think back to several other films about decent men taking hostages because the system is horribly unfair to…
Review: Thirteen Lives
Thirteen Lives is one of those inspiring movies that you can't really find much fault with (unless you're claustrophobic). It's based on a true story that screamed "miracle movie" from…
Review: ELVIS
I've been a pretty big fan of Elvis Presley ever since I made a whirlwind pilgrimage to Graceland in the late 1980s, about a decade after he died at the…
Review: TOP GUN: MAVERICK
As sequels 30+ years in the making go... TOP GUN: MAVERICK delivers at mach speed. The high-adrenaline action drama is like a remake, homage and sequel all rolled into one.…
Review: Happening
Talk about a film arriving at just the right moment! This gripping French drama about a young woman in the early 1960s who gets pregnant and has to go through…
Review: Hit the Road
This wonderful road trip drama traverses the Iranian landscape with a family and their dog. Along for the ride are a mother (Pantea Panahiha) and father (Hasan Majuni) and their…
Quickie Review: The Northman
This is a quickie because I know I am not the audience for this violent revenge epic. It's the latest from writer/director Robert Eggers who garnered high praise for his previous…
Review: All the Old Knives
I keep forgetting the name of this movie-- wanting to call it Knives Out, which it isn't. It's not as sharp, or entertaining. But it is engrossing. There are worse…
Review: Better NATE than Ever
The DUMBO in the room with Disney's family-friendly musical dramedy Better NATE Than Ever is the irony of timing--as the film's release just happens to coincide with the passage of…
Review: Topside
This is a really gritty and entirely engaging little film. It's about Nikki (co-director Celine Held) and her 5-year-old daughter Little (Zhaila Farmer) who're living on the edge underground in…
Review: Wood and Water
Not a lot "happens" in this character study film, but that doesn't mean it's boring. It's the story of Anke (played by Anke Bak, the director’s mother), a German woman…
Review: Huda’s Salon
This riveting “based on true events” thriller from two-time Academy Award nominee Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now, Omar) is set in the West Bank. Reem (Maisa Abd Elhadi) is a young Palestinian…
Review: Fabian
In this adaptation of "Fabian: Going to the Dogs", a German novel first published in 1931 but later banned and burned by the National Socialist Party, Jakob Fabian (Tom Schilling)…
Review: I Want You Back
While the just-released Marry Me boasts some major global starpower, the just-released I Want You Back is the smarter choice for a circa Valentine's Day romantic comedy. It's quirky, engaging…
Quickie Review: Blacklight
Now where did I put that last review of a Liam Neeson action movie? I can probably just dust it off... At nearly 70 (!) Liam Neeson remains quite watchable.…