Author: Al Alexander

I began as a film critic for The Patriot Ledger in suburban Boston in 1988, and became the senior film critic there in 2001. My reviews also appeared in newspapers associated with the nationwide Gannett chain. I' was recently granted membership to the prestigious Southeastern Film Critics Association and I've been a member of the North Carolina Film Critics Association since 2014. I have twice been honored by The New England Associated Press News Executives Association for outstanding feature writing. I transplanted from Boston to Raleigh in 2013 but remained on staff at the Ledger until 2023. I'm now starting out on my own in hopes of drawing attention to autism and putting it in a positive light. I was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum in 2020, and it has given me a whole new perspective on life, as well in how I analyze movies.

Voicemails for Isabelle (2026)

Flawed ‘Voicemails’ not totally phoned-in      If the makers of the Netflix rom-com “Voicemails for Isabelle” were honest with themselves, they would have named this Zoey Deutch vehicle “You’ve Got Voicemails.” That’s how unabashedly it rips off the Nora Ephron hit that itself was a wholesale pilfering of Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Shop Around the Corner.” […]

Unidentified (2025)

‘Unidentified’ mixes murder with empowerment       Consistently ranking among the bottom dwellers on the human rights index, it’s little surprise that Saudi Arabia isn’t what you’d call female-friendly. But it’s getting better, as Haifaa Al-Mansour’s twisty whodunit, “Unidentified,” fitfully attempts to illustrate through the machinations of an amateur sleuth cleverly pushing the envelope by exploiting […]

Rose of Nevada (2025)

‘Rose of Nevada’ offers eerie voyage through time    The eerie and ultimately affecting “Rose of Nevada” is not just a mystery wrapped up inside an enigma. It’s also definitive proof that multi-talented filmmaker Mark Jenkin has arrived intent on choking the life out of convention. He will likely remain an acquired taste for audiences […]

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 […]