There is a wealth of confirmation to be found about many of our worst nightmares in SILK ROAD, a cautionary tale of stereotypes, specialization, and the consequences of absolute freedom. Based on an article by David Kushner in Rolling Stone, it charts the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht (Nick Robinson), a 20-something idealist of… Read More »
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
It’s only right that a revenge story with a savage punch line should also have a savage sense of humor. And so it is with PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, a tale of rage against the patriarchy in which the testosterone-heavy are not the only problem, and one woman’s refusal to let a crime go unacknowledged makes… Read More »
THE HOUSE
If anyone could have saved THE HOUSE, it would have been Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell. Theirs is a deliciously insouciant sense of comedy delivered with deadpan sincerity that can make the most of anything tossed their way. And so it is with THE HOUSE, a raggedly written story with a creaky plot that no… Read More »
THE HERO
Sam Elliot is the definition of laconic. As an actor, he is a man who feels deeply, but keeps those emotions in tight check, yet transmitting them to the audience with clarity and an authenticity that is riveting. His only flaw is that he makes it look almost too easy, until the moment when the… 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 »
SAUSAGE PARTY
It’s just as well that Seth Rogan’s animated comedy, SAUSAGE FEST, is R-rated. That would be because the most awkward question a parent might have to answer after his or her child has seen this metaphysically dense romp wouldn’t be about the specific mechanics involved in the bonding between Brenda (Kristen Wiig), a bosomy hot… Read More »
MAGIC MIKE XXL: Flash and Dazzle
Steven Soderbergh is an executive producer of MAGIC MIKE XXL, but that is the only trace of that director to be found in this sequel that is more about joy than angst. Channing Tatum, returning as the eponymous male stripper, has taken the fun and dazzle from the original and eschewed most of the cerebral… Read More »
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS
Naturally it all begins with a secret government experiment gone horribly wrong. Or right, depending on your point of view. In a secret government facility conveniently located in the middle of field and under a rock, the military developed Item 9. Weed so strong that it was not only declared illegal, the facility was ordered… Read More »
GET ON UP
James Brown was no ordinary star, and GET ON UP, the film about him is no ordinary bio-pic. It is as kinetic and as kaleidoscopic as the radical new approach to music Brown introduced. Chadwick Boseman, star of 42, essays another real-life character and with the same intensity and passion that be brought to Jackie… Read More »
FIERCE PEOPLE
There is little in life sadder to see than a film that thinks it has a great deal to say of a revelatory or profound nature, but doesn’t. And thus is it with FIERCE PEOPLE, which stretches metaphors beyond their inherent tensile strength in order to inform its audience that the rich are different. As… Read More »