Search for 2021

The Hand of God is a coming-of-age story drawn from the memories of Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino. Infused with elements of nostalgia, it looks back wistfully at the last years of his youth spent in Naples during the mid-1980s. Although...

1999’s She’s All That was a fine, forgettable slice of mediocrity. In my naivete, I assumed the film’s bland anonymity was the reason it was accorded a gender-swapped remake. After all, while there’s danger in remaking a good movie, when ...

Four years ago, when I reviewed The Hitman’s Bodyguard, I described it as a fun throwback to the mixed-race buddy pictures of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Due in large part to the combustible chemistry between lead actors Ryan Reynolds (w...

When it comes to the world of fashion, I don’t know the difference between Armani, Versace, and Gucci. To me, Tom Ford is better-known as a director. Perhaps if I had come to Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci with a stronger background in the fiel...

The Ice Road may be the worst direct-to-Netflix movie to feature a major star. It may also offer the worst entry into Liam Neeson’s catalog of strong, resilient action heroes. It’s not hard to understand the potential in the premise but it...

When contemplating a musical, whether it’s a Hollywood classic, an original screen creation, or a stage-to-movie adaptation, there are two key considerations. The first is that the film has a story worth telling and that its raison d’etre ...

To what extent has the narrative surrounding the Black Panthers been developed by government and law enforcement agencies whose impartiality has been, to put it mildly, suspect? Although it’s beyond question that the Panthers weren’t compr...

Disney’s latest plundering of their own IP library has allowed them to release a live-action film that isn’t a remake of an animated tale. Jungle Cruise represents their third cinematic interpretation of a popular Disneyland/Magic Kingdom ...

Across-the-board strong performances represent the upside of King Richard, director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s part bio-pic/part hagiography of Richard Williams (Will Smith), the (in)famous father of all-time tennis greats Venus (Saniyya Sidney) an...

Calling a movie a “fairy tale” and having Julie Andrews provide “Once Upon a Time…” bookend narration are not sufficient reasons to abandon things like intelligent plotting and compelling character development. For years, various Disney ...