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, […]
Karasawa keeps the cameras running when Stritch has both panic attacks and diabetic incidents, and she even catches some sweet moments along the way.
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 […]
Controversially calls out Vermeer for painting with technology and suggests that other artists could have worked this way.
The documentary does fail to deliver on some of its most tantalizing potential.
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 […]