(**) It is written. Making a befuddling satire is a sin and mixing pageantry with ambiguity is not the next coming. That’s why The Book of Clarence flounders. This story of Jesus’s final days riffs off the many Hollywood interpretations that came before it. From 1927’s The King of Kings by Cecile B DeMille to 2004’s The Passion of the […]
Lift
(**1/2) Any film that begins with an elaborate, broad daylight heist deserves viewers’ attention. It’s what comes between that intro and the film’s adrenalin-pumping final hour that may give Netflix audiences reasons to take a refrigerator break. Comedian and comic actor Kevin Hart tries to ditch his funny, smart-mouth persona to play a suave international […]
Society of the Snow
(***) “If I die, I give you permission to feed on my body.” Sounds like the opening line of a cheesy vampire movie. Instead, it’s the turning point in a based-on-fact drama that pits men against the elements and their only weapons are ingenuity, an unflagging will to survive and courage. In 1972, a Uruguayan […]
Good Grief
(**1/2) A tepid rom/com/dra usually breeds ambivalence. That’s the case here. There are chuckles, whimsy, flirtations and tragic twists. But in the end, though entertaining and breezy, nothing cuts as deep as it should. Comic actor/showrunner/writer/producer/director Daniel Levy was laugh-out-loud funny on his Emmy-winning series Schitt’s Creek. As a family went from great wealth to abject poverty in […]
10 BEST FILMS 2023
As 2023 ends, this year’s best films are vying for awards that will crescendo with the Oscar® race. Film fans don’t have to watch from the sidelines. They can join the fun and view them all in theaters, VOD or on streaming services. Pictures, directors, screenwriters, actors and behind the lens talent have given their […]
Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé
(***) Mother/wife, CEO and performer. Beyoncé knows who she is. Now the rest of the world will too. Just like her BeyHive, a fan club that she showers with love and devotion: “My heart is full. My soul is full.” The Destiny’s Child lead singer has some news. She’s grown as a solo artist. From […]
Napoleon
(**1/2) It’s hard to be a fearless leader and a little cuckhold at the same time. It’s enough to give a man a Napoleon complex. The first question Francophiles will ask is why are a British director of Oscar-winning epics (Ridley Scott, Gladiator) and an American character actor (Joaquin Phoenix, Joker) collaborating on a bio/war film about […]
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
(***) “A lot of things I don’t remember, I choose not to remember. I make up the rest. That’s what storytelling is all about,” says poet/writer/activist/educator Nikki Giovanni. In this very enlightening homage, by documentarians Joe Brewster and Michéle Stephenson, the icon and intellectual gets the respect she deserves. Years of speaking truths, reflecting on […]
Lakota Nation vs United States
(****) “Land back!” It’s a call to action that powers this very insightful documentary. That rallying cry is part of a stream of thought that you can watch, study and internalize. You learn that Native Americans have a deep connection to their land and nature. Specifically, their discussions center on the Lakota Nation’s fight to […]
Killers of the Flower Moon
(***) Why in the 21st century is anyone making a film about the Native American experience from a white man’s perspective? What is there to gain? Just great artistry that overshadows indigenous people. Author David Grann based his novel Killers of the Flower Moon on information he gathered from FBI reports and archival materials. His mix of fact […]
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