Movie review: At times over the top, ‘Loro’ satirizes Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi
Originally released in Italy as two movies, “Loro” from writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, made its international debut recently at the Toronto International Film Festival as one. It’s long, clocking in...
View ArticleMovie review: Real-life couple Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem star in...
“Everybody Knows,” which screened recently at the Toronto International Film Festival, starts out with a big family wedding in a town outside Madrid — and it attracts the return of one of the family’s...
View ArticleMovie review: Quirky, delightful ‘Woman at War’ mixes music, ecoterrorism and...
Part of the joy of attending international film festivals is discovering foreign language gems like Icelandic director’s Benedikt Erlingsson’s quirky drama “Woman at War.”At the center of this odd tale...
View Article‘This Is Life’ creator Dan Fogelman now hits the big screen with ‘Life Itself’
Dan Fogelman, best known by mainstream TV audiences as the creator-producer-writer of the hit show “This Is Us,” is not shy about putting the word writer at the top of his résumé. That’s probably...
View ArticleMovie review: Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick team up for a deliciously twisty...
Are the secret lives of suburban women really as exciting as seen in “Gone Girl” and “The Girl on the Train”? And in their TV counterparts, “Desperate Housewives” and “Big Little Lies”? Is murder and...
View ArticleMovie review: Loss of innocence tangible in ‘White Boy Rick’
Richard Wershe Jr., infamously known as “White Boy Rick,” is the longest serving non-violent juvenile drug offender in the history of Michigan. He’s still behind bars and due out on parole Dec. 25,...
View ArticleMovie review: A sad, funny, shattering look at ‘Life’ in four chapters
“Life Itself,” fairly or not, is going to be known as the big-screen cousin of the hit TV show “This Is Us,” which, since my only TV viewing these days consists of “Game of Thrones” repeats, Rachel...
View Article2018 Toronto Film Fest is one of the best
Another Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close, marking my 15th time attending the non-stop, sleep-depriving, fabulous event. Because of an already-packed work calendar, I was only...
View ArticleMovie review: Overwrought tearjerker ‘Life Itself’ plods to predictable
Talk, talk, talkity-talk ... that’s all that’s going down in “Life Itself,” the contrived melodrama from Dan Fogelman, the writer and creator of NBC’s weekly ugly cry fest “This Is Us.” In the movie,...
View ArticleMovie review: ‘Blaze’ spotlights burnout of country music legend
Chances are you’ve never heard of Michael David Fuller or his stage persona, Blaze Foley. But Ethan Hawke thinks you should. And it’s hard to argue once he’s stated his case in his artfully mounted...
View Article‘This Is Us’ creator Dan Fogelman now hits the big screen with ‘Life Itself’
Dan Fogelman, best known by mainstream TV audiences as the creator-producer-writer of the hit show “This Is Us,” is not shy about putting the word writer at the top of his résumé. That’s probably...
View ArticleThe actress Keira Knightly explains how she became the author Colette
British actress Keira Knightly has been all over the place in film roles. She did some swashbuckling in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, made for a feisty Guinevere in “King Arthur,” was the...
View ArticleMovie review: A Lizzie Borden retelling for the #MeToo era
Hollywood can’t seem to bury the hatchet on Lizzie Borden. Every year, there seems to be some sort of movie or TV show revisiting the most notorious murder case in the history of Fall River. It’s to...
View ArticleMovie review: Magic, mystery, mayhem reside in ‘House with the Clock in Its...
In the magical adventure “The House with the Clock in Its Walls,” the titular dwelling is the most alive and compelling character in the movie. Just the sight of the spooky Queen Anne-style home — with...
View ArticleMovie review: ‘Colette’ tells the dramatized true story of the controversial...
Today we focus on those celebrities who go by one name, and are world renowned by that one name. There’s Liberace (real name Wladziu Valentino Liberace), Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone), Bono (Paul...
View ArticleDirector David Lowery has been making movies — in his head — since he was 7
Writer-director David Lowery knew early on that he wanted to make movies, and when he sat down to talk about his newest one, “The Old Man & the Gun,” at the Toronto International Film Festival, he...
View ArticleBradley Cooper smoothly moves into the director’s chair for ‘A Star Is Born’
So many people react with a surprised “What?” when they discover that Bradley Cooper not only has the male lead – opposite Lady Gaga – in the newest version of “A Star Is Born” (the most recent, in...
View ArticleMovie review: ‘Science Fair’ recognizes teens who value mind over body
South Dakota’s Brookings High School sure loves its sports teams, even if they go 0-9 in football. All you need do is glance at the dozens of trophies lining the building’s main concourse to know the...
View ArticleMovie review: Documentary remembers ‘Harold and Maude’ director Hal Ashby
For one, nine-year period in the 1970s, Hal Ashby was touched by magic like no director before him. Everything he created turned to gold: “Harold and Maude,” “The Last Detail,” “Shampoo” “Bound for...
View ArticleMovie review: The good, old-fashioned Western gets an oddball makeover in...
No other rip-roaring Western comes to mind that begins with a nighttime gunfight out in the prairie, where the sounds are loud and the flashes of light are bright, and it’s impossible to tell what’s...
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