Search for Owen

“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.” This Jesuit motto became the driving force behind The Up Series, a nine-volume (thus far) documentary that has spanned fifty-six years. Begun in 1964 under the direction of P...

A take-notice performance from Anna Kendrick (who drops the f-bomb more times than in all of her previous roles combined) can’t hide how threadbare and ultimately unsatisfying the narrative of Alice, Darling is. Written without much concern for ...

Timeliness can be important in a film’s release, but it’s rarely all-important. Consider The Beach House, for example. Here’s a movie about people trapped in a shelter-in-place situation by an unknown contagion that has infiltrated the a...

Bottle Rocket starts and finishes strong, but, somewhere in the middle, it loses its focus and its way. Concentrating on a trio of incredibly inept criminals, there are times when this film seems like Reservoir Dogs as directed by Kevin Smith (Cle...

Feelings of déjà vu while watching The Box are understandable (perhaps inevitable), with the movie evoking memories of a Twilight Zone or Outer Limits TV episode. Such similarities are not coincidental; the author of the source material, Richard...

Columbine has never been a mystery to me. A tragedy, yes, but not mystery. The most surprising thing about Columbine is that it took so long for something like that to happen. Anyone who has been bullied probably understands this, and there's litt...

With a surreal atmosphere and offbeat narrative, Norwegian writer/director Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario distantly recalls Being John Malkovich while offering commentary on both the warped and fleeting nature of fame and the corrosive impact...

During the cold months of the winter of 1973-74, the release of a horror film called The Exorcist became a national phenomenon. Would-be viewers stood outside for hours in bad weather to get a ticket, and the lines in New York City were said to ci...

The early 1970s was a time of great experimentation for filmmakers. The fertile climate allowed directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Alan J. Pakula, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas to showcase their unique visions. Into the...

If there are lots of flashes and bangs, and smoke and fire, either your car has just rear-ended a Pinto or Michael Bay has made a new movie. Sometimes, both are disasters. In the case of The Island, there's enough fun to be had that it's almost p...