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 feels like a more adult version of TV’s “The Office.”



Next, execute the plot like a classic Agatha

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 most unique story from King to be adapted into a film, there is

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, but I was surprised by the quality and how stylized it was right off the bat. It's fun and

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 true to this trend, but wavers on a shaky foundation of sub-par predecessors and bland

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 more accessible and mainstream thanks to streaming services, and there are always a few movies highlighted each year during the

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 movie aside from a CGI-heavy finale that was unsatisfying,

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 television broadcasters to explore the true story of a terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympics.



Many will

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,” composed by Shore to evoke J.R.R. Tolkein’s great horse lords of Rohan, the scenic

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 other musical elements of the track. Then I’d play a live

Catching Up – Late Nov.



Transformers One (PG)



As of now, we officially have two “good” Transformers movies, and the new one is good enough that you might not mind getting a sequel or two. “Transformers One” is the first fully-animated Transformers movie since “The Transformers Movie” taught a generation of kids about the harsh realities of toy marketing back in 1986.



Josh