They Shot the Piano Player (2024)
Spanish director Fernando Truaba is one of those [...]
Mystery/Suspense
They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
Juel Taylor’s bizarre conspiracy sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone drops onto Netflix with very little fanfare this weekend, and that’s both a blessing and a curse. It was filmed in 2020 (note that it co-stars Jamie Foxx, whose health issues were reported months ago) and made a strong showing at the American Black Film Festival […]
Death on the Nile (2022)
I confess that I am not exactly a fan of Agatha Christie. In my life I have only read two of her books; one for a book report in high school (Murder on the Orient Express), and the other (Ten Little Indians) at the insistence of a friend. For me, her books are form and […]
Bird Box (2018)
Is Bird Box the victim of bad timing? Watching the movie today on Netflix, I kept wondering if my opinion might have been so sour if the movie hadn’t come out in the shadow of other, better end-of-the world thrillers from 2018 like A Quiet Place, Heredity and Annihilation. Right now, when conversation turns to […]
The Loft (2015)
I’d rather stab myself with a fork then watch this movie again. The only thing that I knew about The Loft when I walked in was that it was made four years ago and, for one reason or another, is only now getting a theatrical release. Having seen the godawful movie, I understand why no […]
Taken 3 (2014)
There is virtually nothing that lingers in your mind when Taken 3 is over, except for the fact that Forest Whitaker’s character learns to love bagels. It’s true, early in this movie as he’s investigating a murder he opens a bag of warm bagels that has been left at the scene. Then he proceeds to […]
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
For those who treasure the great film noir thrillers of yore, A Walk Among the Tombstones seems like return to a genre that Hollywood has forgotten how to make. These days, action thrillers are unremittingly simple-minded, put together by filmmakers who are so terrified of offending moviegoers with short attention spans that every detail of the […]
Godzilla (2014)
The most tickling moment in Godzilla comes when we first see the creature. He’s revealed slowly; first a shot of his foot, then his hip, then his hands, and then his world-famous dino-mug. What’s tickling is that he almost seems to be smiling – or possibly sneering. The fact that, at that moment, he is […]
Blue Ruin (2014)
John Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is a joy to anyone who is utterly bored with the Hollywood revenge fantasy of Jason Bourne and the ridiculous Taken series with Liam Neeson. While those movies are disposable fantasy, Saulneir’s film is about the messy, bloody business of revenge as it might happen to the ordinary person next door […]
