Reviews
Zamibian drama ‘Guinea Fowl’ is not what you might expect
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (3 stars out of 4) Made in Zambia by director Rungano Nyoni, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is a compelling if deceptive exploration of culture and family dynamics. The film opens late at night as the protagonist, a young woman named Shula...
Musician-turned-filmmaker Flying Lotus shows promise with sci-fi horror ‘Ash’
Electronic musician Flying Lotus returns to the silver screen with his latest sci-fi-horror film “Ash”. The film made its world premiere at the SXSW film festival and opened wide on March 21. The film follows Riya as she awakens in her space station on a foreign...
Why you need to watch “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016) now that it’s back on Netflix!
Premise A young storyteller, Kubo (Art Parkinson), lives the truth of his stories as he must find an ancient suit of armor to fight against the vengeful Moon King (Ralph Fiennes). A Dying Art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r01mk6F_Pk See how stop-motion played a...
Soderbergh delivers with tense, stylish spy thriller ‘Black Bag’
Black Bag (3 ½ stars out of 4) When you break it down, Steven Soderbergh’s “Black Bag” becomes a bizarre recipe of pop culture elements: start with a “Mission: Impossible”-style save the world premise, but set it inside a British Intelligence internal subculture that...
The 10 Best Stephen King Film Adaptations
With the recent release of Osgood Perkins's horror-comedy The Monkey, another Stephen King story has now been adapted into a film. The Monkey is inspired by a short story of the same title from a short collection called Skeleton Crew. While The Monkey might not be the...
What I admire about “Unbreakable Boy”
Premise Based on the true story of the LeRette family, young Austin (Jacob Laval) navigates life with brittle bone disease and autism, which--try as they may--can't break him down. Far more than I expected I was anticipating a cheesy, possibly religious family flick,...
‘Captain America: Brave New World’ doesn’t feel new at all
Captain America: Brave New World (2 stars out of 4) It’s a given with Marvel productions these days that if you want to understand the latest release, you need to be familiar with half a dozen previous offerings. Julius Onah’s “Captain America: Brave New World” stays...
My Top Viewing Experiences of 2024: The Year of Foreign Films
An Interesting Pattern While this conversation isn't anything new, I noticed an interesting trend with my favorite movies I watched this last year--they were primarily foreign films. As we all have witnessed, movies and shows coming from other countries have become...
Forgettable ‘Wolf Man’ is your obligatory January horror release for 2025
Wolf Man (2 stars out of 4) In January of 2013, once I became a weekly film critic, I started to notice the patterns inherent to my new job. For example, one of the first movies I covered that year was a horror film called, “Mama.” I remember very little about the...
Haunting ‘September 5’ speaks to the future of news media
September 5 (3 1/2 stars out of 4) Earlier this year, “Civil War” used a group of photojournalists to explore a nightmare future where ideological tensions boiled over into organized warfare on a national scale. In “September 5,” director Tim Fehlbaum uses a group of...
Animated ‘War of the Rohirrim’ feels like weak remix of ‘Two Towers’
War of the Rohirrim (2 stars out of 4) The best thing about “War of the Rohirrim” is that it will send you out of the theater with Howard Shore’s “Lord of the Rings” themes echoing in your memory. Specifically, “Rohirrim” uses cues from 2002’s “The Two Towers,”...
‘Complete Unknown’ captures the enigmatic myth of Dylan
A Complete Unknown (3 ½ stars out of 4) A few years back I used to use Bob Dylan in my composition classes to illustrate the difference between text and context. First I’d play the studio version of, “Like A Rolling Stone,” and have my students analyze the lyrics and...