Written and filmed during the pandemic, this two-person show starring Karan Soni and Geraldine Viswanathan is a sweet little treat. The gist is simple—the lockdown takes effect in the middle of a blind date between two horribly mismatched Desis (both under constant parental pressure to find a mate). Forced to […]
Read More
The Duke
Jim Broadbent is flat-out stellar in this brilliant, supremely entertaining retelling of the famous 1961 case of the elderly British man who stole Goya’s ‘Portrait of the Duke of Wellington’ from the National Museum in order to raise money for charity. Directed by the late Roger Michell (‘Notting Hill’) and […]
Read More
Deep Water
Anyone hoping for another ‘Fatal Attraction’-style bit of excellence from director Adrian Lyne will be sorely disappointed, especially when they realize they just spent two hours sitting through this slogging mess of a supposed psycho-sexual thriller. The story never moves at a pace quicker than a hobbled snail, and the […]
Read More
The Outfit
I’m not sure there are five actors working today with the nuance, grace, and all-out talent as Mark Rylance. Here he stars as “English”, a cutter (don’t call him a tailor!) working in mid-50s Chicago during the post-Capone gangland years. His store is a front for a local mob boss, […]
Read More
Windfall
This sparse suspense-drama keeps things vague but grounded in its simple premise—a man (Jason Segel) attempts to rob a vacation home but is foiled when the owners (Lily Collins and Jesse Plemons) walk in. The ensuing hostage situation has its moments, particularly as Plemons’ character has to step in and […]
Read More
The Adam Project
Ryan Reynolds re-teams with ‘Free Guy’ director Shawn Levy for this fun fantasy flick about a guy from the future who comes back to the present day to meet his younger self and work together to stop their dad from inventing time travel. Loaded with gobs of Reynolds’ trademark schtick, […]
Read More
Turning Red
Pixar’s 25th film keeps its incredible streak going, following up ‘Soul’ and ‘Luca’ with a magical story of a young Asian-American girl who’s cursed to become a giant red panda every time her emotions get the better of her. What could have been a silly, slapstick comedy instead fills the […]
Read More
The Batman
Debate all you want about whether we need yet another big-screen version of the Caped Crusader, but writer/director Matt Reeves’ offering does stand among the better ones… though it could have been trimmed by at least a half-hour. Camp-free and full of twisted darkness, it’s a lot closer to ‘Se7en’ […]
Read More
The Weekend Away
Leighton Meester dips her toes in the pulpy ‘Woman in the Window’/’Girl on the Train’ suspense-thriller waters and makes it out relatively unscathed. It’s not eminently memorable and relies on a few too many contrivances to be considered an unqualified success, but as movies like this go, it’s not terrible. […]
Read More