Search for 2018

Minimal spoilers. There are some vague references to things that happen and the usual discussion about plot elements available via trailers and pre-release clips, but I have tried to remain as “spoiler-lite” as possible. As always, however...

Spoilers: This review contains “non-specific” spoilers. Some readers may feel this reveals too much about the ending.For roughly two-thirds of its running length, Bad Samaritan shows potential as a nicely twisty thriller replete with Hitch...

There was a time back in the 1990s when everyone wanted to be Tarantino. As we learned at the time, however, there’s only one Tarantino and all the attempts to mimic his style and approach felt like third generation VHS dubs. Now, some 25 ye...

Those wacky Coens are at it again. And those serious Coens. And those loquacious Coens. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a paean to pre-revisionist Westerns, allows the Oscar-winning brothers to try out nearly every weapon in their considerable ...

Banana Split, the directorial debut of cinematographer Benjamin Kasulke, is a romantic comedy with a twist. Here, the central relationship is one of platonic friendship rather than physical attraction. (Although one could make a case that ther...

Loosely based on the graphic novel of the same name, Gotham by Gaslight takes the venerable Batman franchise and dumps it into the Victorian era. While many of the characters retain their names and some of the basic building blocks of their ch...

There can be a lot of power in stories about addiction: the power to dishearten, the power to frustrate, and (on rare occasions) the power to uplift. Regardless of the substance at the core of the disease, movies about addiction follow a famil...

Beirut is, without a doubt, an imperfect thriller. The narrative is at times too dense, some aspects of the ending are too pat, and there are some internal inconsistencies the movie never explains. But, damn, is it good to watch a movie that e...

Ben is Back is one-half of an awards-worthy exploration of the impacts of addiction on the victim and his family and one-half of a muddled quasi-thriller that undercuts the power of the rest of the movie. This review will contain some limited ...

Perhaps the best way to describe Bernard and Huey is a coming-of-age story in absentia. When we meet the title characters, Bernard (Jim Rash) and Huey (David Koechner), they’re middle-aged men in New York City. Via flashback, we uncover the p...