The End of Oak Street (2026)
Quaint ‘Oak Street’ is woefully short on excitement I’d be hard-pressed to name the best flick of this summer, but I can’t instantly cite the dumbest. That would be the dinosaur of dinosaur movies, “The End of Oak Street.” Why do I not pine for “Oak”? The reasons are many, from the awful […]
The Rivals of Amziah King (2025)
You’ll savor the sweet nectar of ‘Amziah King’ Forget Ulysses and Spider-Man; the buzziest superhero of the summer is a mandolin-strumming apiarist with a honey of a tale to tell in the brilliant bee-noir “The Rivals of Amziah King.” And all I can say is all right, all right, all right! Because this unexpected […]
The Brink of War (2026)
Cold War talks are taken to the ‘Brink’ If you were alive in the autumn of 1986, when Bill Buckner whiffed on Mookie Wilson’s slow-roller to first, you’ll no doubt also remember the much-ballyhooed Reagan-Gorbachev summit that took place just three weeks earlier in chilly Reykjavik, Iceland. Little was settled during that Saturday-Sunday meeting […]
Don’t Say Good Luck (2026)
Lousy ‘Luck’ is jinxed right from the start From its generic title to its nepo baby star, the new Netflix weeper, “Don’t Say Good Luck,” is the epitome of bland, broad-brush filmmaking. Nothing about it is original or vital. Just a shoddily made gift from a dad to his not-so-talented daughter in an effort […]
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
Camp goes to camp in sly ‘Teenage Sex and Death’ There are few things more liberating than discovering your true self, even if it takes decades to reveal. It happened for acclaimed trans filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun in their 30s. Suddenly, everything made sense, dramatically altering their view of the world. For me, it was […]
Late Fame (2025)
Willem Dafoe is pure poetry in ‘Late Fame’ For his follow-up to his heartfelt “Diane,” Pittsfield native Kent Jones relocates from the Berkshires to Lower Manhattan for a similarly engrossing tale about an aging protagonist processing regret while contemplating legacy. It’s called “Late Fame,” culled from an 1895 novel by Arthur Schnitzler (“Eyes Wide […]
Olmo (2026)
Sweet ‘Olmo’ devolves into coming of age clichés Like its namesake, “Olmo,” Spanish for elm, is sturdy and symbolic of revolution and the desire for change. It’s about a New Mexican teenager revolting against the authority of his parents, but it’s also very much a striking metaphor for the oppression of immigrants across the […]
Ice Cream Man (2026)
Tasty start winds up melting in ‘Ice Cream Man’ When it comes to grotesque cartoon violence, Eli Roth proves he can really dish it out with “Ice Cream Man.” And his titular character is not vending Good Humor, despite his creepy, omnipresent smile. You see, he’s come surreptitiously to the idyllic New England hamlet […]
Cookie Queens (2026)
‘Cookie’ crumbles when placed under scrutiny Girl Scout cookies are arguably more American than apple pie and at least equally iconic. So it’s hardly surprising that no less than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have staked their sweet toothes on “Cookie Queens,” a documentary profiling four of the 700,000 young ladies who each […]
The Samurau and the Prisoner
Words mightier than sword in loquasious ‘Samurai’ The most intriguing aspect of “The Samurai and the Prisoner,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s first foray into the Japanese tradition of jidaigeki, is the J-horror maven’s celebration of non-violence through violence. I know, not at all what you’d expect from a somewhat factual 16th-century samurai tale whose DNA includes […]