(**) Telling someone “You have nothing between your ears,” isn’t a compliment. Telling a filmmaker and screenwriter “You have nothing between the action scenes,” is a similar diss. Read on… The trailers for The Fall Guy look exciting and certainly the premise has great potential. Stuntman Cole Seavers (Ryan Gosling, Barbie) is on hiatus after a precarious fall […]
Challengers
(***) Sometimes, three’s a crowd. Sometimes, not. Especially when a very desirable female tennis star enjoys making two male tennis players compete for her affection. “Whoever wins, gets my number.” They’ve known each other since the early 2000s. As a teenager, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya, Dune), was once the queen of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTS) juniors. She […]
The Long Game
(**1/2) Watching people beg and fight for equal access and dignity is sobering. But that’s what happened in the ‘50s before the anger and upheaval of the ‘60s civil rights movements. Gaining equality wasn’t easy back then. Life in small town Del Rio, Texas in 1955 is a microcosm of what’s going on in the […]
Civil War
(**) It’s like someone set a house on fire, then hid behind a bush to see what the crowd’s reaction would be. 28 Days Later was a shocking and terrifying zombie film. Credit director Danny Boyle and actors Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris for putting pure fright in that nightmarish, post-apocalyptic tale. But the real kudos […]
Monkey Man
(***1/2) “Every day, I’ve prayed for a way to protect the weak.” Hanuman, the Monkey God, is an ancient Hindu deity whose mythology includes heroism, strength, intelligence, love and compassion for the less fortunate. Sometimes his spirit is represented in a semidivine monkey-like form. It’s an essence that drives actor turned writer/director Dev Patel’s (Slumdog Millionaire) very impressive […]
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
(**) Godzilla and King Kong use to have a beef. Now that they’ve kissed and made up, there’s no real meat in this generic big creature smackdown. Also, any production involving Godzilla or Kong now stands in the shadow of the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. There’s no excuses anymore. If writer/director Takashi Yamazaki can craft a […]
Road House
(**) Is there a point to remaking an older movie if you aren’t going to make it better? Or is it just an easy way out for filmmakers adverse to creating something new? Director/producer Doug Liman has an impressive filmography that’s marked by innovative films that started their own genres. The very hip Swingers. The intense […]
In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon
(***) Everything you’ve always wanted to know. Every facet of Paul Simon’s musical career is on view and here for the listening too. For 3h 29m, Oscar-winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), a veteran documentarian and miniseries director, plays out Simon’s greatest hits, adventurous musical excursions and the recording of his latest studio […]
Shirley
(**1/2) She was a pioneer. A political warrior. A woman who’s earned an esteemed place in herstory. After Frederick Douglas (1848), Edwin Taylor (1904) and Channing E Phillips (1968). Before Jesse Jackson (1984), Alan Keyes (1992) and Barack Obama (2008). There was Shirley Chisolm (1972). All vied to be president of the United States. She […]
The American Society of Magical Negroes
(*1/2) Those who can, teach. Those who can’t, but want their narrative told anyway, try satire. Somewhere in the basic code of screenwriting is a mantra that says, “Show don’t tell.” If you have a message, and you dispense it visually, audiences are smart enough to follow it and see the point. And if they […]
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