After John Rambo (played by Sylvester Stallone) saved a group of missionaries and murdered most of the bad guys in Burma, he settled down, found a home with a mailbox bearing his last name and embraced normal life. At least, that was the conclusion of “Rambo,” the 2008 installment which belatedly caught us up with…
Following the enormous financial and artistic success of “IT” (2017), returning director Andy Muschietti had a real monster to contend with- how to top the first film and shape what needed to be the horror genre equivalent of “The Godfather, Part II”? To the credit of the filmmakers and actors, this ambitious sequel only gets…
The stunning and wildly unpredictable life and career of recording artist Linda Ronstadt is presented in the gripping documentary, “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.” While the expected concert footage and interviews with famous colleagues are here, perhaps the most impressive factor is how Ronstadt gets to present her story firsthand; through the use…
Somewhere between the title and the impossibly cutesy-looking trailer, “The Peanut Butter Falcon” seemed totally miss-able. The whole thing sounded like one of those pre-packaged Fox Searchlight movies that flaunts independent film street cred, while touting an all-star cast that most little films could never dream of affording, in a premise that seemed ready for…
Documentary features are not only a means of exploring stories we know but also for creating awareness for under-looked subject matters. Pamela B. Green’s “Be Natural-The Untold Story of Alice Guy Blache” doesn’t just celebrate the work of its central figure, a pioneer female filmmaker in the silent era; Green’s thorough and always engaging work…
When we meet Billi (played by Awkwafina), she’s broke and living alone in New York. The one constant in her life is her relationship with Nai Nai (played by Zhao Shuzhen), her grandmother who lives in China. Billi is informed by her parents that Nai Nai’s doctor discovered she has cancer. Nai Nai doesn’t have…
In Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Rick Dalton, a B-level western star whose career has never branched outside of television. Often accompanied by Cliff, his stuntman, go-to-repairman and best friend (played by Brad Pitt). As the late 1960’s set in and the radical counter cultural movement overtakes America, Dalton’s…
Law enforcer Luke Hobbs (played by Dwayne Johnson) and career criminal Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham), supporting characters in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, now have their very own spinoff. What was once fast and furious is now long and tedious. If you’ve ever wondered what one of these movies would be like without…
Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday” isn’t the jukebox musical I feared, nor the one-joke sitcom its trailer would leave you to believe. In fact, even with its shortcomings, this is a refreshing summer sleeper that has more on its mind than what’s on the surface. Television actor and big screen newcomer Himesh Patel makes a strong starring…
Ari Aster’s “Midsommar” is the first movie I’ve seen all year that feels like it was made by a real filmmaker, an artist who has carefully designed each shot, collaborated in full with every cast member and has a true vision he reaches with every scene. It’s that good. While the promotional materials are pushing…