Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Labored ‘Killers’ is good, not great From the first to the last shot 206 minutes later, Martin Scorsese’s epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” exhibits immense love and care in effectively doing justice to America’s indigenous people. It’s as gripping and poignant as any film since Edison developed the medium. And the inventiveness in how […]
The Royal Hotel (2023)
Creepy ‘Royal Hotel’ accommodates plenty of thrills The best horror movies are those in which the haunted house is situated inside our inventive minds, where terrors reside at the intersection of assumption and expectation. Such is the property known as “The Royal Hotel,” where it’s all about location, location, location. The address is Australia’s desolate […]
Fair Play (2023)
‘Fair Play’ effectively weaponizes sex in the office It begins with the blood of a woman and ends with the blood of a man. But it’s what transpires between that proves most captivating in Chloe Domont’s auspicious filmmaking debut, “Fair Play.” It’s another treatise on the war between the sexes, but what sets it apart […]
Flora and Son (2023)
Charming ‘Flora and Son’ makes beautiful music Few meld song and film as seamlessly as John Carney. That’s because the writer-director knows well how to excite and exploit the senses of sight and sound in a manner that stirs the heart and soul. He makes it appear so effortless when it’s most certainly not. That’s […]
Cassandro (2023)
Uplifting ‘Cassandro’ puts a hold on you If ever a wrestling movie pinned you to the canvas, it’s “Cassandro,” the wildly flamboyant tale of one of lucha libre’s most colorful, and least likely, gladiators. As played by Mexican treasure, Gael Garcia Bernal, Cassandro is a walking contradiction: Confident, yet filled with doubt; macho, yet effete; […]
The Inventor (2023)
‘Inventor’ short on new ideas Few have rivaled Leonardo da Vinci in inventiveness and intelligence. So, why honor him with such a dull exercise as the sterilely animated “The Inventor”? Perhaps I’m expecting too much from “Ratatouille” scribe Jim Capobianco, but given the depth and breadth of his subject, it’s not unreasonable to demand more […]
The Good Mother (2023)
Not much that’s good about this ‘Mother’ When your film drops on Labor Day weekend, long established as Death Valley for ticket sales, you know the studio lacks confidence in its ability to lure a crowd. Such is the fate of “The Good Mother,” destined to have cash registers mimicking crickets. Sure, it features Hilary […]
Passages (2023)
Sexy ‘Passages’ reinvents the love triangle The undeniably sensuous “Passages” blows into town this weekend on a jet stream of well-deserved hype. It’s everything you’ve come to expect from a director as daring as Ira Sachs, an auteur who can charm you with a film as delicate and sweet as “Little Men,” or devastate you […]
Jules (2023)
Otherworldly ‘Jules’ is one for the aged In a tiny western Pennsylvania town where the motto is, “A good place to call home,” we’re introduced to a lonely widower negotiating life’s final turn. That he’s played by Sir Ben Kingsley is all the incentive necessary to invest in a silver-haired “E.T.” in which three aged […]
Dreamin’ Wild (2023)
‘Dreamin’ Wild’ hits all the right notes Say you have a dream, investing everything you have, both emotionally and financially. Then, it fails miserably. But wait. Thirty years later, it’s out-of-the-blue realized. Pure bliss, right? Wrong! That’s the careful-what-you-wish-for lesson lurking within “Dreamin’ Wild,” a most unconventional tale of a tortured music artist whose long-deferred […]