THE LOST CITY OF Z opens in the darkness of the jungle. Natives stand in silhouette outlined against fires burning in warning or in welcome. It’s a fitting start to James Gray’s suitably literate adaptation of David Grann’s book of the same name, telling the true story of the obsessions that drove British Major Percy… Read More »
THE ASSIGNMENT
The subject matter in Walter Hill’s THE ASSIGNMENT will make half the audience cringe in a way that the other half, no matter how empathetic, won’t be able to fully understand. And that’s sly. This brutal exercise in gender studies, masquerading as a biting action-noir fable, is rife with irony and with bald truths designed… Read More »
THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER
THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER is a strikingly original horror tale told with an eerie and elegant style. The polished visuals, as chilly as the winter in which they take place, though, provide an unsettling framework for the visceral suspense of an ordered world falling quietly apart. It’s augmented with a sound design that is, against all… Read More »
LIFE
Stephen Hawking once opined that when we first make contact with alien life forms, it won’t go well for us. LIFE takes that premise and gives it a derivative ALIEN-esque story and a lackluster execution of same. Set in the near future, aboard the International Space Station, it presents a dark vision of our first… Read More »
THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENTANT
THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENANT is a slight but eminently humane story, lushly filmed, and richly romantic. It follows the classic tropes of the romance genre, enhanced with nuanced performances that elevate what might otherwise be stock characters in a plot with few surprises. The biggest surprise being that it is so satisfying as entertainment, and as… Read More »
THE SHACK
THE SHACK, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, is a well-meaning and heartfelt film that dares to tackle a fiendishly tricky question. If God is good and loves us all, why does She allow evil in the world? Couched in parables and riddles, and for all its gentleness of spirit, it arrives… Read More »
LOGAN
The standalone X-Men story, LOGAN, dares much with its darkness, and achieves even more by being an emotionally brutal story that relies on character, not spectacle, to pack its considerable wallop. A tale that is as psychically violent as it is physically so, it is a sharp descant to the earlier films in the franchise… Read More »
THE GREAT WALL
THE GREAT WALL is a big, blustery action-adventure flick in the classic mold, but with one exception. There’s no damsel in distress here. Instead, the winsome lady of the piece is a warrior with nerves of steel and no fear of heights. Kudos there. Not everywhere, but definitely there. Set somewhere in the 11th century,… Read More »
FIFTY SHADES DARKER
I have not read any of the Grey books, as in 50 Shades of, or the one on which FIFTY SHADES DARKER is based. Thus when I see Kim Basinger flitting through the edges of this film, looking petulant and warning our mousey heroine, Anastasia (Dakota Johnson), away from the eponymous Grey, as in Christian… Read More »
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 starts with Mr. Wick doing what he does best. That would be mowing his way through a horde of adversaries with a cool precision and a lethal effect. While he is doing this, we are reminded, or introduced to, if we haven’t see the first film, just who exactly Mr. Wick… Read More »
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