Clik here to view.
‘The Assassin’ a grand portrait by a master filmmaker
There is a marvelous moment in the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage musical “Sunday in the Park with George,” the sumptuous fictional telling of the life of painter Georges Seurat by Stephen Sondheim and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Suffragette': Carey Mulligan the right star to demand her rights
By Jocelyn Noveck | Associated Press First the bad news: “Suffragette” isn’t a Meryl Streep movie, despite what you may have seen in the trailer. She has but a few moments of screen time. And now the...
View ArticleOutside the walls of ‘Room': a second look at the critics’ favorite
NOTE: This is a spoiler-filled revisit of “Room.” If you are planning to see “Room,” do not read this! In my four-star review of the stunningly original “Room,” I went into some plot detail about the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Explosive ‘Spill’ brings recent history blazing back to life
As a professor of engineering tells us in “Spill,” Leigh Fondakowski’s altogether riveting oral-history play about the monumental BP oil spill of 2010, there are two types of disaster. One is natural;...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘SPECTRE’ review: Daniel Craig at ease as an imperfect James Bond
Daniel Craig had some fans quite shaken and others stirred with his declaration last month he’d rather slash his wrists than play James Bond again — and though I’ve found Craig to be an excellent,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘The Peanuts Movie': Happiness is … a warm Charlie Brown tribute
You’re in good hands, Charlie Brown. Some 65 years after the launch of the much-beloved “Peanuts” comic strip and a half-century after the Golden Age of Charlie Brown TV specials, “The Peanuts Movie”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Love': Too much tedious sex, not enough story
Hey, those actors aren’t just pretending to have the sex, they’re really having the sex on camera! Shocking. Shocking how mundane and tedious graphic sex can be in Gasper Noe’s “Love,” an artfully shot...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘I Smile Back': As a destructive addict, Sarah Silverman shows serious talent
Sometimes I’ll be driving down tree-lined roads through a quiet, upscale suburb, past one impressive and sprawling home after another— pristine lawns, Audis and BMWs in the driveways, maybe a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Victoria': Impressive star keeps gimmicky thriller moving
By Bill Goodykoontz | Gannett News Service “Victoria” could have been a parlor trick and, in some ways, it is. Sebastian Schipper’s film is 138 minutes long, takes place in 22 locations — and is shot...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Miss You Already': An old-time weepy melodrama in cooler clothes
By Bill Goodykoontz | Gannett News Service Melodrama has its place in movies, and that place is about, oh, 1940. This isn’t to say that more-contemporary audiences don’t enjoy the occasional weepie....
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Spotlight': Fine actors play fine journalists, and it all checks out
Ask anyone who has worked for a newspaper to name the best movie ever made about our profession, and it’s an upset when “All the President’s Men” isn’t the first title mentioned. Tom McCarthy’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘By the Sea': Angelina Jolie Pitt directs Brad in dreadful story where very...
“I smell fish.” – Angelina Jolie Pitt’s Vanessa, moments after she and her husband arrive at a French town on the Mediterranean coast. Me. Too. Writer-director-star Angelina Jolie Pitt’s “By the Sea”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Trumbo': Bryan Cranston acts in broad strokes as writer in the blacklist jungle
“Trumbo” is a corny, well-made B-movie about an A-list screenwriter who had to take jobs writing B-movies after he was blacklisted, but eventually worked his way back to writing A-movies with Kirk...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘My All American': Heavyhanded football drama leaves all the tears on the field
In the late 1960s, Freddie Steinmark snared national headlines for his amazing prowess on the college gridiron as the superstar safety for the University of Texas football team, an accomplishment all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Brooklyn': Where an appealing Irish ingenue finds herself
By Lindsey Bahr | Associated Press “Brooklyn” is a story for anyone who has ever left home. It’s a story for those who’ve waffled in indecision, for those forming their identities and forging their own...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Love the Coopers': Home for the holidays, they forgot to pack the funny
By Bill Goodykoontz | Gannett News Service What a waste, bored Christians going after Starbucks for their non-denominational holiday cups in another battle of the trumped-up “War on Christmas.” Save...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘The 33′: A surface-level rehash of Chilean miner rescue
By Kerry Lengel | Gannett News Service In 2010, millions of people around the world watched as 33 Chilean miners were pulled to safety from 700 meters beneath the Earth in Chile’s Atacama Desert. It...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2′ brings series to dark, bizarre end
If they had a Concussion Protocol in “The Hunger Games,” Katniss Everdeen would be forced into early retirement. In just this installment, the fourth and last chapter in the wildly successful film...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘The Night Before': A would-be holiday ‘Hangover’ just shocks for shock value
Even within the context of being an absurdist stoner slapstick holiday movie, “The Night Before” is so disjointed and so uneven and so unfocused, you start to feel like you’re at a party that was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Secret in Their Eyes': Story of unspeakable loss brings out best in Julia...
When Julia Roberts’ Jess is told by a friend, “You look like you’re a million years old” in “Secret in Their Eyes,” there’s not a speck of insult in the observation. It’s said with heartbreaking...
View Article
