Westworld junior
Gerard Johnstone’s M3GAN is built on a concept that was a chestnut 40 years ago: seemingly benign artificial intelligence turning on its human creators. With a creepy, malicious android little […]
Poe at heart
Writer and director Scott Cooper’s film of Louis Bayard’s novel The Pale Blue Eye is a reasonably engaging American Gothic mystery. It offers visually appealing historical fiction and, at just […]
Curtain call 2022
Watching the film industry transform in 2022 has been more fascinating—and alarming—than anything currently playing in theaters. The hammer blow COVID dealt to movie theater attendance became more obvious than […]
Young Spielberg
Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans is a re-creation of the director’s early life—partly embroidered—that focuses mainly on his fixation with filmmaking. Overall, it’s a well-told story and a reminder of […]
Pick: National Anthem
One-hit-wonder Clint has fallen on hard times in National Anthem, a new full-length experimental feature from local filmmaker Will Goss. Through a blend of animation and live action, the movie […]
Saving Private Baumer
Netflix has elaborately revived Erich Maria Remarque’s classic World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Edward Berger. Remarque’s novel’s descriptions of trench warfare and mechanized […]
Not Chevy’s Fletch
If you say “Fletch” to people 40 and up, Chevy Chase immediately comes to mind. Chase’s portrayal of Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher, a former investigative-reporter-turned-detective in the ’80s comedies Fletch and […]
Bowie’s changes
David Bowie was so ahead of his time that, even six years after his death, his music seems advanced. Brett Morgen’s concert film/documentary Moonage Daydream is a cause for celebration […]
Time in a bottle
Having masterminded the Mad Max franchise, Australian director George Miller could have spent his entire career making billions filming high-octane chases around a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Instead, he consistently chooses unusual, […]
Tiny sneakers, massive charm
Judging by its trailer, Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Marcel the Shell with Shoes On might come off as utterly silly—and in parts, it very enjoyably is. But, ironically, its hero, a charmingly […]