King of the “If you have seen one of them, you have seen them all” franchise. Michael Bay’s profitable special effects blockbuster series is on its 5th installment. Were taken back in time with this latest sequel, incorporating King Arthur and Merlin into the Transformers origin story. “The Last Knight” absorbs elements from other franchises […]
As a reasonable human being, I don’t condone alcohol abuse, illegal drug use, or murder. Rough Night, the new film from writer/director Lucia Aniello promotes all of these things, and asks the audience to laugh at them. It’s curious that someone like Scarlett Johansson who stands up at the DNC and speaks so whole heartily
This is how a comedy should be: Laugh out loud funny with substance and truth underneath. Zoe Lister-Jones is the current wonder woman who has written, directed, produced, and starred in a groundbreaking (to me) film about a couple who fights constantly, and playfully come up with the solution to their problems. I say “groundbreaking”
There are more great elements working for Beatriz at Dinner than against it, at the forefront, Selma Hayek. Mike White’s screenplay harks back to the first time he worked with director Miguel Arteta on The Good Girl (2002). That was a snappy, bold, but honest story about relationships. Beatriz at Dinner is the same vein
Colin Trevorrow’s follow up to “Jurassic World”, his non tentpole picture before “Star Wars Episode XI” (2019), takes him back to “Safety Not Guaranteed” territory. Despite appearances, “The Book of Henry” still functions within Trevorrow’s fantasy repertoire. The closest thematic resemblance here would be the 1992 flick “Radio Flyer”. The script abandons predictable narrative structure,
Not to diminish Sam Elliott’s performance in his new film The Hero, but writer/director Brett Haley creates a vehicle for the iconic actor that’s strikingly comparable with Crazy Heart. Haley cast Elliott in 2015’s I’ll See You in My Dreams, playing against type. That film, Haley’s best accomplishment to date, created a bond between the
Over the past weekend distributor A24 released their deceptively marketed It Comes at Night. The sophomore film from Houston born director Trey Edward Shults whose directorial effort Krisha won both the audience and grand jury prize at SXSW in 2015 (but mainstream audiences never heard of). This film has a budget, Hollywood actors, marketed as
Director Roger Michell’s films can be quite good or forgettable depending on what he is working with. His latest was very anticipated on my part, the adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s novel. Maurier is the nearly forgotten author behind two of Hitchcock’s best adaptations The Birds and Rebecca. The first trailer for My Cousin Rachel
Here is another example of a studio taking a director with little to no experience and shoving him behind one of the summer’s biggest tent-pole action flicks. Of course, we already know from previous experience that “A Tom Cruise movie” means he is the real voice behind the film. If that wasn’t enough, Universal is
The true story of a Marine who bonds with her German Shephard on a mission to Iraq could have been another cinematic animal failure like “A Dog’s Purpose” or “Max”. Documentarian turned film director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, keeps this war thriller and emotional drama away from melodramatics. “Megan Leavey” has similar beats to “Million Dollar Baby”,