Search for Mary

When I was a youngster, one of the highlights of my week was watching Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons. The program, a variation of which seems to have aired in nearly every major American TV market, showed a pair of older horror mov...

Most directors have their obsessions and many of them, when realized, disappoint on one level or another, oftentimes because the filmmaker lacks distance. They have crafted the movie so lovingly in their minds over the years—visualizing every sh...

With 2003's Freaky Friday, Walt Disney Pictures is again cannibalizing its past. This is the third time the Magic Kingdom has turned out a version of Mary Rodgers' novel. The first instance, in 1976, starred Barbara Harris as the mother and Jodie...

Anyone who saw Todd Solondz's breakthrough feature film, Welcome to the Dollhouse, has the kernel of an idea about what to expect from the director's latest effort, the ironically-titled Happiness. Welcome to the Dollhouse is a dark comedy tha...

Here’s a rare example of a Netflix prestige film that neither runs too long nor overstays its welcome. While some of the A-list directors working for the streaming distributor have taken the opportunity to meander and add bloat to otherwise ...

The Kitchen is a scattershot, uneven attempt to tell a gritty gangster story in which three women are the primary characters. Based on the DC comics series of the same name, the movie plays like the highlight reel of a deeper, more compelling ...

When watching something like Mary, it’s useful to remember that actors, like all of us, have mouths to feed and bills to pay. That’s why an Oscar winner like Gary Oldman and a respected actress like Emily Mortimer can find themselves adrif...