Kraken (2025)
‘Kraken’ proves fun creature-feature throwback You gotta admire an old-fashioned horror film that name-drops Greta Thunberg, who, to the unenlightened, is considered a bigger threat to our over-consumptive way of life than the titanic tentacled creature wreaking havoc in Pål Øie’s “Kraken.” It stands as both an homage and a revival of classic “message” […]
Mexico 86 (2026)
Soccer tale ‘Mexico 86’ shoots wide of the net With the World Cup getting underway next week in North America, Netflix is capitalizing with the debut of “Mexico 86,” a satirical look back at the last time the Land of the Aztecs hosted the matches. And it’s not a very flattering portrait, as director Gabriel Ripstein […]
Office Romance (2026)
Entertaining ‘Office Romance’ gets the job done With so many white-collar employees now telecommuting, the concept of romancing a co-worker is becoming a rarity, rendering J.Lo’s new Netflix rom-com, “Office Romance,” a bit of a relic, much like Jennifer Lopez herself. It’s time for her to give up the ghost and start challenging herself […]
The Currents (2025)
Waterlogged ‘Currents’ is awash in grandiosity An aristocrat’s impromptu sog evolves into a slog in the overtly pretentious “The Currents,” writer-director Milagros Mumenthaler’s rambling fever dream about a Mrs. Dalloway-type woman encountering an existential crisis following a haphazard stab at “suicide.” The protagonist, or in this case, antagonist, is the lovely Catalina (Isabel Aimé González-Sola), a successful […]
Carolina Caroline (2025)
Hot stars add heat to ‘Carolina Caroline’ Novelty is at a premium in the romantic crime drama “Carolina Caroline,” an alluring, ultimately pale imitation of Terrance Malick’s “Badlands.” Everything about it feels recycled and preordained. You correctly sense impending doom from the first moment the naive West Texas bumpkin Caroline makes eye contact with the dangerously […]
Renoir (2025)
Beautiful ‘Renoir’ paints coming-of-age masterpiece Death is a concept 11-year-old Fuki Okita has so little grasp of that she’s flippantly written a school essay titled “I’d Like to Be an Orphan.” It’s a case study on being careful what you wish for, as the Reaper fixes to come calling on her family in the mesmerizing coming-of-age tale “Renoir.” […]
Pitfall (2025)
Woeful ‘Pitfall’ most definitely is the pits The laughably awful “Pitfall” is slasher trash of the lowest order. It fails at every level, from the wooden acting to the rote script to the sloppy direction by its helmer, James Kondelik. You expect the characters to be subjected to bloodletting torture, but their encounters […]
The Last Viking (2025)
Oh, brother, is ‘The Last Viking’ fabulous Some of the best films about autism aren’t about autism. They’re more autism adjacent. And of late, there have been a trio of such gems in “The Stranger,” “I Swear,” and perhaps the best of them all, Anders Thomas Jensen’s “The Last Viking.” It stars the incomparable […]
Giant (2025)
Middling ‘Giant’ falls short of a knockout If the boxing biopic, “Giant,” lacks punch, it’s through no fault of Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Mesry, both knockouts in their portrayals of legendary trainer Brendan Ingle and feather-weight hall of famer Naseem “Naz” Hamed, aka “The Prince.” No, the onus rests with a flat, cliched script […]
Ask E. Jean (2025)
In ‘Ask E. Jean,’ Carroll gets the best of The Donald For more than two decades, journalist E. Jean Carroll thoughtfully, and often entertainingly, doled out advice to readers through her monthly Elle column “Ask E. Jean.” But that all ended the minute she summoned the courage in 2019 to confront the lasting guilt […]