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The Heiress

“The Heiress is a prime example of the kind of literary adaptations that Hollywood once trafficked in. Films that fashioned intelligent frameworks from great novels allowing for a kind of cinematic poetry between the finely honed performances and staid melodrama, a type of cinematic language that no ” read more

Ghostbusters (2016)

“Ghostbusters, or Ghostbusters: Answer the Call as it’s dubbed during the end credits, is much better than the loud, annoying crybabies would have you believe. Much like the original, this spin on the material is a herky-jerky ride between improve comedy and jump-scares. When it works, it’s very ” read more

Mame

“What a mess this is. Everything you’ve ever heard about what a disaster the film version of the Broadway smash Mame is, well, it’s all true, every word of it. There’s no amount of exaggeration that can quite explain just how inept and fascinatingly awful this is. There’s a few bright spots, ” read more

Critic’s Choice

“The final big screen pairing of Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, two indomitable performers and towering icons, and it is not worthy of rafter-shaking comedic talents. It plays not dissimilarly to an episode of I Love Lucy where she writes a questionably autobiographical novel and Ricky disapproves, only ” read more

To Catch a Thief

“Cary Grant. Grace Kelly. Alfred Hitchcock. The French Riviera.   There’s nothing else you need to make a wildly entertaining thrill ride, complete with some romance, action, and beautiful jewels. It’s charming minor Hitchcock, but an entry that is demonstrative of his range as an artist. Aft” read more

Rear Window

“It makes a strange sort of sense that the hero of Rear Window is confined to a wheelchair in his apartment. His immobilization only highlights his character’s obsession and fascination with voyeurism, hinted at with the opening crawl through his apartment that slowly caresses a broken camera and t” read more

High Noon

“A tough, lean 85 minutes marks High Noon as a study in economy. There’s no fat in any of the stories, the characters feel authentic and lived-in, the pace never wavers, and the tension slowly increases until the nail-biter of a climatic shootout. High Noon uses all of the pieces of a typical weste” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

“After a five year dry spell, the Pirates of the Caribbean returned with a new director (Rob Marshall), two returning players (Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush), and minus two others (Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom). On Stranger Tides, based on a novel by Tim Powers, is what a franchise looks like whe” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

“If the prior year’s Dead Man’s Chest was a rollercoaster that consistently threatened to careen wildly off the tracks at any moment, then At World’s End is a whirligig on a crumbling foundation. The sense of bloat that’s always threatened to devour these films reaches its apex here, with nea” read more

Queen of Katwe

“True emotional uplift is hard to accomplish in the movies, especially in “based on a true story” variations that trend towards easy emotional manipulation and sugary sentimentality. Leave it to a more idiosyncratic director like Mira Nair to take the “child prodigy-made-good-through-sports” ” read more

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

“Everything wrong with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest can be perfectly summarized in the frenzied battle that encapsulates much of the climax. There’s Will, Jack, and a dispossessed Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) fighting in a gigantic spinning wheel across an island terrain. M” read more