Maestro
Maestro is a very ambitious film. Co-written and directed by and starring Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born, Silver Linings Playbook), it attempts to tell the story of Leonard Bernstein,…
Review: Licorice Pizza
This quirky coming-of-age rom-com was one of my favorite films of the year. The leads, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, are unknowns, but there are some fabulous cameos from A-listers,…
Review: Nightmare Alley
I've been a big fan of Oscar winner Guillermo Del Toro (The Shape of Water) since he first made his mark with Pan's Labyrinth back in 2006. He's a master at…
Review: A Star Is Born
About a week after I first saw the latest version of A Star Is Born, I took advantage of a rainy weekend to catch up on the 1937 original, the…
Spoiler-Free Review: Avengers: Infinity War
I don’t know what to say. Really. There’s little to say, without giving too much away. So here’s the spoiler-free gist: The Avengers - and their superhero allies from across…
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 does what a good sequel is supposed to do. It preserves the elements that made the first one a big success (intergalactic action and…
War Dogs
War Dogs joins the ranks of ‘good but ultimately forgettable’ movies of the summer. Based on a true story, the film stars Jonah Hill and Miles Teller as Ephraim Divoroli…
Two-fer review: Burnt and Our Brand Is Crisis
Burnt is a foodie flick. Brand is a political flick. Burnt stars the eminently watchable Bradley Cooper as a brilliant but temperamental chef struggling to make a comeback after battling…
American Sniper
War is hell. So is this intensely polarizing movie. You either love American Sniper or hate it. I was one of the latter. Adapted from a biography of the same…
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy is a good, entertaining summer flick filled with humor, sarcasm, sci-fi superhero angst, and action. But don’t make the same mistake I did… which was to…
American Hustle
“Some of this actually happened.” With that, American Hustle proceeds to take a fair amount of creative license to create a really good movie. The story is loosely based on…
The Place Beyond the Pines
I really like Ryan Gosling. And I really like Bradley Cooper. But I just did not like this movie, which actually felt more like three movies. I kept waiting to…
Silver Linings Playbook
Lots of hype surrounds Silver Linings Playbook and I'm not sure I buy into the Best Picture scenario, but as rom-dramedies go, there are not a lot of comparable films.…
The Hangover Part II
If you weren’t among the masses that gave The Hangover Part II $186 million over the past two weeks and you’re still thinking about seeing it, don’t bother – especially…
Limitless
Limitless is okay, but The Adjustment Bureau is better. So if you’re wavering between the two, stick with TAB and Matt Damon. However, if you’ve already seen TAB and are…