One of those little Indies that could (and should), this out-of-nowhere film will surely be overlooked when folks are sorting through their couch-surfing options, but don’t overlook it. Whitney Call and Mallory Everton star as sisters who embark on a cross-country road trip to rescue their grandma from her COVID-plagued […]
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The Guilty
Jake Gyllenhall—who, for my money, is the most underrated actor at work today—turns in yet another top-notch performance… this time as a cop working the 911 switchboard. As the story (based on the original 2018 Danish film) unfolds, we get clued into what’s going on at the same time he […]
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The Addams Family 2
The tagline on the poster (“Unhappy to see you again.”) sums it up better than I ever could. It’s just bad, right from the get-go—lazy, moronic, and all over the place. Kudos to anyone who can make sense of it (or, better yet, care enough to make sense of it). […]
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Wife of a Spy
Set in Japan in 1940, this nuanced (and subtitled) spy film directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) is a powerful white-knuckle pre-war thriller with more twists and turns than Lombard Street. It’s shot beautifully, acted superbly, and is played as if it’s based on a true story (though […]
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The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Jessica Chastain is an absolute powerhouse in this biopic of Tammy Faye Bakker, imbuing a sense of the real human being behind the caricature that she became on TV and in the tabloids. Alongside the solid Andrew Garfield as husband Jim, Chastain continues to hold rank as one of the […]
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My Son
The gimmick is that James McAvoy wasn’t given a script heading into this slow-burn thriller about a father trying to find his abducted son in the Scottish Highlands… which means he finds out what’s going on at the same time as we do watching it. Despite his solid performance, though […]
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Kate
The always-great Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as a John Wick-style assassin who needs to finish ye olde ‘one last job’ before retirement, which naturally means everything goes to hell in a handbasket. It’s over-produced and more meander-y than it needs to be, but there’s a handful of things to like […]
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Worth
Based on the true story of the creation and administration of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, this Michael Keaton starrer is heady stuff and dominated by talking heads in conference rooms, but don’t let that deter you. And, yes, it may be written by Godzilla vs. Kong’s Max Borenstein, […]
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Just when you think you’re entering the early (or, heck, late) stages of Marvel burnout, along comes Shang-Chi to inject some fresh new blood into the universe. The super-charismatic Simu Liu leads the way in this non-stop film that’s equal parts martial arts flick, fantasy film, and superhero actioner. It’s […]
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Vacation Friends
Very much in the comedy-of-errors vein, wherein everything that can go wrong does, this drug-fueled, hedonistic flick finds Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji as nice young folks who cross paths with a pair of gonzo nutballs (John Cena and Meredith Hagner) at a resort in Mexico. But just because […]
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