A fairy tale for grownups? A grown-up fairy tale? Either way, don’t be fooled: the setting of writer-director Brett Haley’s father-daughter dramedy — a failing vinyl record store in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, with frequent stops at a local bar that stays in busi-ness thanks to its reputed “authenticity” — …
Oh, dear. Hector (Simon Pegg in deadly earnest) is an English psychiatrist, an affluent, middle-aged white guy afflicted with the dreaded "tidy, uncomplicated, satisfactory life," a man who, terrifyingly, "takes comfort in his predictable patterns." No wonder he can't help his patients. Happily, one of them is a psychic who …
Filmmaker Kevin Miller sets out to survey the Christian (and non-Christian) world on the question of who, if anyone, is going to hell, and why a loving God would ever allow creatures made in His image and likeness to suffer such a fate. The chief debate is between those who …
There’s a real story here, a struggle of nature and nurture that has genuinely apocalyptic stakes, since the titular critter is prophesied to bring about the firey, blood-soaked end of the world even as he’s been raised to protect and defend that self-same world from the forces of darkness. (Also, …
There’s a real story here, a struggle of nature and nurture that has genuinely apocalyptic stakes, since the titular critter is prophesied to bring about the firey, blood-soaked end of the world even as he’s been raised to protect and defend that self-same world from the forces of darkness. (Also, …
Apparently, so many resources went into creating Sally Field’s late-period showcase role that there wasn’t much left over for the plot, or the other characters. And it is a showcase: Doris is a woman for whom life begins again just as she reaches retirement age. Mom’s death releases her from …
The stars align in the Western sky. Hell or High Water is the sort of film that tempts the critic — well, this one, anyway — to start writing the sort of copy that might end up as a promo-poster pullquote. “Timeless and yet supremely timely,” “A movie with tremendous …
Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai is the co-author of the bestselling memoir I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by The Taliban. Davis Guggenheim's (Waiting for Superman) prettily padded documentary/advocacy alert tells the story of before and after that violence, placing special emphasis, as the …
Writer-director Ari Aster’s debut feature is not coy about its intentions: it opens on an obituary and then gives us mourning(?) daughter Toni Collette at her mother’s funeral, noting all the strange new faces present and also, oh yes, Mom’s “secret rituals.” (Some mention should be made of Collette’s go-for-broke …
A rom-com with precious little com but plenty of unintentionally hilarious rom. Wes Bentley takes his perpetually perturbed mug south of the border to investigate the mysterious woman who stopped in at his dad's funeral and made everyone wonder if the old man had a piece of pollo on the …
Writer-director-producer Pieter van Hystee takes the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Netherlandish painter’s death to make a film about...Bosch’s hometown museum’s attempt to mount a comprehensive exposition of his work in honor of the 500th anniversary of his death. So, yes, we are treated to tremendous close-ups of …
The film begins as its story ends — with the handsome, introspective lead character (Tom Hiddleston) picking through the rubble of a broken building, finding a dog, bringing it back to his ruined apartment, then slaughtering it and roasting its hind leg on a spit while cheerful classical music streams …
Director John Lee Hancock (The Founder) mounts a valiant effort to stretch a solid genre picture into an American epic with the tale of two ex-Texas Rangers — put out to pasture because of their willingness to shoot first and say “hands up” later — who get pressed back into …
Ryan Reynolds is very good at layering a hard candy shell of wisecracks over a gooey caramel center of emotion. Samuel L. Jackson is very good at snapping between glowering menace and cackling affability. And director Patrick Hughes is very good at letting the viewer know he’s hip to his …