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Since Liam Neeson began his action star career with Taken, most of his play-for-pay films have been depressingly generic. Although far from a revelation, In the Land of Saints and Sinners rises above many of those. Perhaps that’s because the...

At first glance, it appears that The Whale might represent a “return to form” for Darren Aronofsky, who has been taking a walk on the strange side with his previous two features, Noah and mother! Alas, despite some interesting performances, th...

There are moments when True Things, a romantic melodrama about a toxic love affair, almost breaks through. But, in large part because it never coalesces the hazy vagueness surrounding the characters, it doesn't quite get there. The chemistry betwe...

Art of Love, which started life with the title Simone, starts out as something different from how it finishes. It’s a tale of two halves. The first 45 minutes represent a whimsical journey of love as a shy young woman plays a cat-and-mouse g...

Two of the most enjoyable disaster films I have seen in the past half-dozen years have emerged not from the powerhouse studios in Hollywood but from Norway. The first was the 2015 tsunami movie, The Wave, and the second was released in 2019 (b...

It took a while for Groundhog Day to start spawning knock-offs but, once it did, the déjà vu-inspired movies turned from a trickle to a torrent. There have been sci-fi variants (Edge of Tomorrow), Blumhouse horror fests (Happy Death Day), an...

For roughly the first two-thirds of its 109-minute running length, To the Stars is an effecting and effective tale of female bonding. Unfortunately, the wheels come off toward the end as melodramatic contrivances result in an unlikely climax a...

Edmond Rostand doesn’t get an “official” credit for “story by” but anyone claiming familiarity with Cyrano de Bergerac will immediately recognize where screenwriter Lindsey Beer drew her inspiration. It’s not unusual for a modern-da...

Spoilers ahoy!Allure is the psychological study of a disturbed thirtysomething woman and the unhealthy relationship she develops with a girl half her age. Despite a threadbare screenplay featuring overfamiliar motifs, the movie gains traction ...

For those who are principally familiar with Sir Michael Caine from his work during the past two decades, his role as the rough-and-tumble Harry Brown may seem a little out-of-character. After all, this isn't the sort of thing one expects from the ...