A 40-year-old wordsmith enters a national spelling bee by exploiting a loophole in its rules in Bad Words. Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman), an editor with savant-like memory, decides to enroll in the latest Golden Quill spelling bee. Of course, it’s a contest meant for eighth graders, and Guy’s nearly three decades older than the other […]
It’s a testament to the involvement that I felt in a movie about fast cars and racing that I left the theater and found myself pushing a little harder on the gas pedal. I’ll admit that Need for Speed had that effect on me, and so did some of the better movies in this genre, […]
An opportunistic concierge is framed for murder and sets out to clear his name in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Wes Anderson‘s latest quirky comedy is a powerful addition to his anthology of the absurd. If you’ve never encountered any of Anderson’s unique films, be forewarned that they’re somewhat of an acquired taste. His latest tale […]
There’s a battle going on in my hometown of Philadelphia. It’s over a parcel of land at 1910 Chestnut Street in the heart of Center City. The space was once the home of the Boyd Theatre, built in 1928. The facility was in operation until 2002 when it finally closed for good. In its day, […]
It’s a testament to Broadway legend Elaine Stritch’s resiliency and longevity that someone she adored, James Gandolfini, has passed on and she still sings his praises and keeps chugging along. It’s impossible to have any interest in theater or the classic shows of the New York City theater scene and not know of Stritch or […]
An erudite beagle and his adopted son meet history’s most famous figures as they travel through time in the animation redux Mr. Peabody & Sherman. In this new, slightly reimagined update of a classic cartoon spin-off, Mr. Peabody (voiced by Ty Burrell) grows up as an outcast. He’s not at all interested in conventional canine cavorting. […]
A ragtag group of Russian soldiers defend a key position against an onslaught of determined German invaders during the battle for Stalingrad. One of the most chilling statistics of World War II is the sheer number of casualties suffered by Soviet forces. A classic case in point is the epic struggle that took place in the […]
Liam Neeson has had some incredible success with action films in the Taken movies, so it’s no surprise that he would want to keep this ball rolling as long as he can. I think that my fellow reviewer, Rich Heimlich, assured that Non-Stop would be an in-flight disaster when he remarked in The Year in […]
A humble prophet builds a following and, with it, the ire of religious leaders in Son of God. This latest retelling of the Savior’s classic story is an extension of a 10-hour TV miniseries — The Bible — that aired on The History Channel last year. Director Christopher Spencer was at the helm for three segments […]
I’ve been a big Penn & Teller fan since I first caught them on TV and went to see them during their frequent stops in Philadelphia with their tours. I think they’re resigned themselves to be lumped in with other magic acts at this point, but for many years, they resisted any kind of classification […]
A rich inventor sets out to prove a curious theory about a Dutch artist’s most famous works in Tim’s Vermeer. Tim Jenison is definitely someone fascinated by process. As a technical expert with an eye for graphics, Tim conceived and created some of the most successful graphic tools in the computer industry. Along the way, […]
A young, talented engineer dreams of the perfect airplane at the dawn of aviation in The Wind Rises. Famed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki knows how to stir the imagination with lavishly creative animated films like his most famous examples — Spirited Away and Ponyo. However, this film is a bit different in that it’ôs a tribute to an actual […]