At first glance, this bizarre film appears to be a stylish, trippy, plot-averse story about a hot new model (Elle Fanning) trying to navigate industry frenemies and parasites (think Showgirls but without the humor or camp) as she is immersed into its dark side. Halfway through, the nonsensical film devolves into an increasingly twisted, gruesome […]
This important historical drama is based on events leading up to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1967 decision ending state bans on interracial marriage. Director Jeff Nichols (Midnight Special, Take Shelter) effectively captures the historical accuracy and appalling political mood of the era, with subtle, powerful performances from Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, as the couple […]
Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar stars as a successful businessman turned rescue worker in this inspirational 2016 drama based on the real life evacuation of 170,000 Indians from Kuwait during Iraq’s 1990 invasion. Despite a few entertaining but distracting Bollywood-style song and dance numbers, this epic saga does a excellent job of capturing the realism, bureaucracy […]
This sequel to the sugary sweet, heartfelt story of Dolly Parton’s humble upbringing in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee is an entertaining, feel good glimpse into childhood events that shaped Parton into the wildly successful entertainer of today. Alyvia Alyn Lind again shines as the precocious young Dolly, who herself has a nice role in […]
The premise of this Japanese sci-fi sounds absurdly fun – a villain rocking a Flock of Seagulls hairdo sends ex-cons to a futuristic Mars to help exterminate an infestation of giant colonist-killing humanoid cockroaches. Apparently the producers spent so much on the snazzy set and costume design, nothing was left to pay writers for an […]
Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard star in this World War II thriller about a couple of spies who fall in love and get married, only for Pitt to discover that Cotillard might be a double agent who must be killed. The first 30 minutes, in which the couple plots to assassinate the German ambassador in […]
A more apt title would be Fantastic CGI in Search of A Story. JK Rowling follows her wildly successful Harry Potter franchise with her screenwriting debut about Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a former Hogwarts student whom is a wizard and wrangler of magical creatures. Set in New York about 70 years prior to the Potter […]
Fashion designer/director Tom Ford turns his creative eye to the thin boundaries between love, hate and revenge in this quirky crime thriller tucked inside a personal saga of betrayal. Amy Adams is a successful but unhappy art gallery owner who receives a book manuscript from first husband Jake Gyllenhaal, 20 years after she dumped him […]
This is an extremely important film about the unfathomable hardships pioneering women had to endure in securing the right to vote in early 1900s Britain – losing jobs, husbands, their own children and in some cases, their own lives. Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter deliver knockout performances in what is a heartbreaking but admittedly […]
This is the emotionally moving, astounding true story of US Army Medic Desmond Doss, the only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor in World War II. Andrew Garfield, in what very well could be an Oscar winning performance, brings a powerful humanity to Doss, both in the film’s first half, which focuses on […]