Daddy Dave (Steve Carell) spends the first quarter of the picture scratching his head while even accidental moviegoers — those who stumble across Beautiful Boy as a fluke, without the benefit of having seen the …

The ringer was still in movie theatre mode when I awoke last Friday to find four messages. To paraphrase comedian Richard Lewis, that many calls so early in the day means one thing: death in …

For her big screen debut, au courant warbler/performance artist Lady Gaga offers up a fifth remake of A Star is Born. Here’s a chance to literally see where she’s coming from, give or take a …

A sampling of the masterful Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Glad we had Gilda

Gun girl Garner

Otto Preminger’s oeuvre

Isn't Ben Kingsley like the male Meryl Streep?

As one of the witnesses in Warren Beatty’s Reds, Henry Miller recalled, “There was just as much f*ing going on then as now, only now it has a more perverted quality.” Apparently Mr. Miller had …

No jokes, folks. All three of these titles are available to rent on Amazon. The Terror of Tiny Town (1938) I’m betting that most viewers won’t be able to venture past more than a reel …

Why burn daylight snapping together a jigsaw puzzle when it’s easier (and more enlightening) to buy a ticket and watch two characters assemble one? The only missing piece to this otherwise easily fathomable romantic Puzzle …

So impressed was Spike Lee by Kevin Willmott’s debut feature, C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America that as soon as he saw the picture's Sundance premiere, he offered to act as the film’s presenter. Spike …

A western, a wabbit, and Marwene Dietwich come under the knife. ­ The Devil is a Woman (1935) A polarizing item among critics and bluenoses, if not a general public that stayed home in droves …

For those keeping score at home, Midaq Alley has taken home more awards than any other movie in the history of Mexican cinema. This bustlingly profane Spanish-language adaptation of Egyptian Nobel prize-winner Naguib Mahfuz’s 1947 …

Don’t you hate it when, while rifling through a desk drawer in search of a book of matches or piece of scratch paper, a character accidentally happens upon the one indisputable clue needed to solve …

Sorry to bother you, but this week’s digital downloads (all available through Amazon) comprise a trio of superior, laugh-out-loud satires. C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004) C.S.A. explores what might have happened had the …

As if an opportunity to relive the last hellish week of grade school weren't enough, the two star students of Eighth Grade will be in town this weekend to celebrate the film's opening. If your …

The annual celebration of everything that’s wrong with contemporary cinema is upon us. Here are three satires about comic book artists to act as antidote, all available on Amazon Prime. Artists and Models (1955) Was …

Normally, the lead photo art corresponds with the lead review, but protocol be damned when you hook a whopper like this: a candid shot of Ingmar Bergman posing with Spielberg’s toy shark, Bruce. To commemorate …

Quick: what was the first film to put the Media Arts Center’s Digital Gym on the map? Having to answer that question produced the first of two blushes from the organization’s founding father and guiding …

A pair of masterful mutts followed by a spot of roadkill. Pard and Bohunk are both available on Amazon. Stream them tonight. Benji fell out of copyright. Consult YouTube. High Sierra (1941) Legend had it …

Trailers for BlacKkKlansman, White Boy Rick, and The Equalizer opened the first day/first show screening of Director X’s SuperFly reboot. If a return to hard R-rated blaxploitation is what’s needed to karate-kick comic book excessivity …

Let’s return to a time when girl-power had more to do with romance than showing a male superhero that she can be his equal. Follow links to rent online. Valley Girl (1983) A savage on …

The sounds of birds chirping and crickets grinding knee bones underscores the brief procession of film financiers and production company logos that precede American Animals. Then a quote from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of …

This week’s column celebrates the opening of Action Point (and my interview with Johnny Knoxville) with a trio of non-Jackass related titles. All three available for rent on Amazon. The Ringer (2005) After Jackass: The …

When a newscaster comes on the radio to report on a robbery foiled by an officer on duty, my mind instantly leaps to an image of a cop standing in a pile of doody. Needless …

As a fan of both the Saw franchise and the two big houses at the Reading Grossmont, I reasoned that there was no better multiplex in the country to watch an opening-day showing of Jigsaw. …

John Badham’s Project X (1987) What is an inordinately intelligent baby chimp like Virgil to do when, in the great tradition of Walt Disney, we open with the removal of not one, but two of …

Tale of the Tape: Book Club, Famed Dames Awards Edition — Jane Fonda (7 Oscar noms, 5 Emmy noms, 2 Oscars, 1 Emmy); Diane Keaton (4 Oscar noms, 1 Emmy nom, 1 Oscar); Mary Steenburgen …

Watching Bel Powley break free from her single-room existence in the coming-of-age werewolf drama Wildling brought to mind this trio of trapped teen tales. Randal Kleiser’s The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976) Your basic …

Just moments before I headed out the door for a screening of I Feel Pretty, an email arrived from the Digital Gym containing a link to 24 Frames, the final film signed by the late …

With its overall superb yearly batting average, the San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase, now in its 8th year, generally heralds the last gasp of quality moviegoing at the multiplex before the summer season …

A sideways glance at the poster for Finding Your Feet was all it took before I began fanning away the aroma of flop sweat prompted by visions of the Boynton Beach Club Bucket Listers waking …

This week we feature a trio of Harold Lloyd shorts from 1920, all of which are available on YouTube. Alfred J. Goulding and Hal Roach’s Haunted Spooks While Lloyd was posing for promotional stills midway …

Hear, ye! Hear, ye! Attention Laurel and Hardy enthusiasts and all the saps at sea! The next gathering of the San Diego chapter of the Sons of the Desert will be held on Saturday night, …

When was the last time you visited a mainstream multiplex and the sight of two men kissing on screen wasn’t greeted with either uncomfortable laughter from the audience or caterwauling rumbles of disapproval? Well now, …

Before congratulating Moisés Esparza, Programming Manager for the San Diego Latino Film Festival and Digital Gym, on this year’s outstanding lineup, let’s unleash a whole lotta love in the direction of festival papa Ethan Van …

Jimmy Kimmel opened by calling for a night for positivity, so I will begin my coverage of the 90th Annual Academy Awards accordingly. (Not surprisingly, threats of controversy never materialized.) Dept. of Happy Memories While …

Who jumped the opening date of Flower by posting their rave review almost one month in advance? Color me guilty, but with an excuse! Make that a pair of excuses. This year, both February 23 …

Cured weaknesses.

Recently received in the Letter to the Editor voicemail: “I would like to submit a letter, and it would say, ‘Who is your movie critic? Exclamation mark! Please do not let them rate movies while …

And so my Saturday begins, as at least one weekend morning a month does, with an early-a.m. kiddie matinee, this one at AMC Plaza Bonita. Never mind the feature in question. The screening took place …

A minor, eager to raise her pappy’s bail money, offers to exchange video evidence — footage of her engaging in sex acts, secretly recorded by two accomplices — for trips to various ATMs with her …

Budgeted at approximately $5 million, IMDB reports that as of January 26 the cumulative worldwide gross of Get Out has reached $254,716,534. Director Jordan Peele and the management at Universal can afford to paper the …

From Shmuel's Loxicography of Yiddish Design: Hallucious, adj. Pronunciation: cha-lush-us. Etymology: from the Yiddish "a chaloshes," literally to faint. 1) Sick-making; atrocious, particularly in reference to artistic shlock.

Fifty Shades Freed at last, that is, as moviedom’s favorite boy-beats-girl franchise draws to a halting climax. This viewer needed closure after having survived the first two, so it just makes sense that I cast …

Alcoholism! Child abuse! Anal fetishism! Smoking! Bestiality! Suicide! Opioid abuse! Transgender latrines! White Supwemacy! The cartoons we grew up on were a celebration of evil, a microcosmic cesspool of all of America's ills distilled to …

The San Diego Jewish Film Festival puts down stakes from February 8–18 with screenings to be held at Edwards Mira Mesa, Edwards San Marcos, the Lot, and the festival’s home base, the David and Dorothea …

The Blood Is at the Doorstep opens, as so many documentaries on the subject of police shootings do, with the sights and sounds of a city — in this case Milwaukee — under siege. It …

The San Diego Chapter of the Laurel and Hardy Fan Club, aka Saps at Sea, opens their 40th season on January 27 with another riotous one-night mini-festival. “I usually try to make each program a …