An unpredictable Boston hood turns FBI informant with unexpected consequences in the violent, cartoonish drama Black Mass. A young gangster from “Southy” grows up seeing only one path for his life — crime. James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) knows that power and intimidation are the key ingredients to expanding his influence and empire. He surrounds […]
A determined young mother and her mentally ill husband struggle to get by in Infinitely Polar Bear. Cam Stuart (Mark Ruffalo) was a brilliant young man from a respected, successful family. His wife Maggie (Zoe Saldana) found his high-octane, quirky personality quite captivating. She never suspected that the very traits drawing her to the man […]
In the ‘90s, there was a sitcom on Fox called Herman’s Head in which four actors portrayed the emotions at odds in lead character Herman’s brain. The show was funny and creative, and it lasted for three seasons. When I first heard about Inside Out, I immediately thought of Herman’s Head. If this animated Pixar […]
A young girl’s inner emotions struggle to cope with major change in Pixar‘s intriguing animated film Inside Out. 11-year-old Riley (voiced by Kaitlyn Dias) has lived a bit of a charmed existence up to this point in her young life. She’s popular with all of her friends, she’s a natural hockey player and she has two […]
Olivia Cooke is a fine young actress. I like her. I really do, especially in Bates Motel. Unfortunately, she doesn’t seem to pick the right movies. In the last year, she appeared in The Signal, The Quiet Ones and Ouija. I didn’t like any of those films. Her acting wasn’t the cause of the problems. […]
They were as synonymous with America as apple pie and baseball. No band in American history has had more songs on the music charts than The Beach Boys. Their upbeat melodies and distinct vocal harmonizing would often mark the dawn of summer for an entire nation. For all of their success, their history had almost […]
Disaster movies are an entirely different breed. In most cases, they are over-the-top special effects showcases where the goal is to see how much destruction they can cram into the running time. Unfortunately, special effects are getting cheaper and more prevalent, so today’s disaster movies show no restraint. San Andreas is such a movie. It […]
A determined L.A. fireman struggles to save his endangered family in the earthquake thriller San Andreas. Just below California’s beautiful coastal cities lies a restless sleeping giant capable of reducing its towering skylines to a hulking mass of twisted wreckage with one fatal blow. Should the giant awake, in the form of a long-overdue earthquake, […]
A talented artificial intelligence expert is called on to evaluate his boss’s latest evolutionary achievement in the riveting sci-fi drama Ex Machina. The promise of advanced artificial intelligence serves as the centerpiece of countless Hollywood films. 1927’s Metropolis captivated audiences with its cautionary tale of a dystopian future ruled by smart machines. Our own tech […]
A discredited former New York Times journalist finds that a potential killer adopted his identity in True Story. That certainly sounds like a recipe for a potentially thrilling drama. The film even starts us off with a highly engaging, deeply disturbing opening sequence. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there. This is a big-fish story that […]
Unnecessarily confusing for half of the film.
A struggling middle-aged couple is drawn to the energy of young bohemian lovers in While We’re Young. Every long-term relationship reaches a point when you wake up and realize that your romance has inadvertently evolved into routine. It’s inevitable for most of us. Life is pretty much dictated by routines. We eat. We sleep. We brush […]