You can like the message even if the messenger isn’t perfect. The migration of well-to-do millennials, empty nesters and others into cities and the exit of working-class people and/or people of color is a social phenomenon: Brooklyn, Raleigh, Philly, Chicago, Nashville, Denver… Still, the poster child for cities in radical transition has got to be […]

Billed as a “live-action adaption of an animated classic,” the carpet gets pulled out from under this weak and formulaic production early on.  The basic story is about a poor young man who gets involved with a royal family, encounters a magic lamp and meets a genie. Purportedly, the origins of the fable come from One […]

Should the glorification of gun violence, as depicted in this action/thriller, become a thing of the past? Is that notion worth a discussion? Think on it. John Wick is back. In Chapter 3 of this ultra-violent franchise, this assassin digs deeper and deeper into an underworld of hit men and women who are greedy for conquests […]

The sneaky, narcissistic and shallow characters who inhabit Olivier Assayas’ backstabbing ode to the rapidly changing publishing industry are unappealing. It’s hard to relate to them even within the context of a slightly humorous script and efficient direction.  Avid readers are switching from hardcover books and paperbacks to Kindles and iPads. That change in the […]