GOLDA does not take the traditional route in telling the story of the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. Instead, it focuses on the defining moment of her political career, a moment that made her, in the closing coda to the film, a hero abroad and controversial in her own country. It is a portrait etched… Read More »
ASTEROID CITY
Wes Anderson’s ASTEROID CITY presents us a dream within a dream as it ponders our place in the cosmos by setting its story in three separate realities that bump into each other the way subatomic particles swarm around an atomic nucleus. Is it synchronicity or chance or some other cosmic law of which humanity is… Read More »
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
Just when you thought the Spiderman franchise might have finally run its course of endless reboots comes SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE, a film that that reinvigorates both animation and the super-hero origin story. Told in a wry, raucous style, it dares to explore complicated themes of family ties and personal responsibility while slyly poking fun… Read More »
SPOTLIGHT
SPOTLIGHT does more than dissect the passions at work in the investigative news process. As riveting as the specifics are of how The Boston Globe’s special investigative team chased down the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, it’s the larger question, that of how wide-spread sexual abuse of children by priests could have flourished for… Read More »
PAWN SACRIFICE
Chess has never been more compelling cinematically than in PAWN SACRIFICE. Whether you know nothing about the game, or you are a grand master, the story of Bobby Fischer’s rise to the world championship, and the toll it took on his already fragile psyche, has all the suspense and intrigue of an espionage thriller. That… Read More »
SALT
Its so nice to know that even though the Cold War is over, its still possible to make a thriller rife with old-fashioned Cold War paranoia like SALT. Its a slight but solid bit of filmmaking that fuels the fires of conspiracy theorists while keeping the audience second-guessing about the motives of its eponymous protagonist.… Read More »
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE may be the summers biggest surprise. Its a remake that actually compares favorably to the original. Sure, anyone whos seen the previous incarnation will know a few of the bigger plot twists going in, but writers Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris have seeded this version with enough surprises to keep things fresh.… Read More »
THE OMEN
Liev Schreiber co-starred in one of the few remakes that worked, THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. It was that remake, in fact, that restored my faith in the concept of re-visting a classic film. Alas, Mr. Schreiber’s latest adventure in remakes, THE OMEN, is much less successful. There are no new insights, no shift in perspective that breathes… Read More »