Search for 2018

The 1966 animated TV Christmas special, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” is as perfect an adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book as one is likely to find. Featuring an iconic vocal performance by Boris Karloff (doing double-duty as the narrator...

As counter-intuitive as it might sound, chaos only works in a movie when it is carefully controlled and focused. Tarantino is one of several masters of this technique and there’s a sense during the course of Gringo that director Nash Edgerton...

This is the sequel Halloween fans have been awaiting for four decades. With John Carpenter whispering in his ear (the original director returned in an “advisory” capacity and as co-composer), David Gordon Green has taken the series back to...

“These aren’t the Muppets,” director Brian Henson might remind us, but his smile and wink would hint at what he really thinks. The son of Muppets creator Jim Henson and the man who filled his dad’s shoes directing The Muppet Christmas C...

The Hate U Give is a coming-of-age story – an unconventional one, to be sure, but a coming-of-age story nonetheless. It’s also an exploration of race in America. In an of itself, there’s nothing unique about that but this movie, directed...

To the extent that slow-burn horror movies are about atmosphere, Hereditary has many of them beaten. Using the camerawork of Pawel Pogorzelski and the music of Colin Stetson to fashion the skeleton of a superbly moody background, first-time d...

Hotel Artemis has the look and feel of a graphic novel adaptation, albeit with a few pages missing. With its flashy action sequences and Tarantino-wannabe vibe, the movie tries hard to be hip and edgy but ends up simply being uneven. Tonal shi...

The awkwardly-titled The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a classic example of a film that works better for children than adults. Seemingly made with the under-10 crowd in mind, the screenplay (credited to Eric Kripke, adapting the book by J...

Ironically, I’m sure, the title of this movie identifies the single most obvious problem. Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with how it begins. In fact, the first 20 minutes or so of How It Ends are solid, filled as they are with mystery and...

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Disney was undergoing the resurgence that would transform it from a sputtering bastion of family entertainment into the juggernaut is has since become, there was arguably no more important creative v...