[8] I’ve been hard on Marvel movies for being cookie-cutter and devoid of surprises, but Avengers: Infinity War stops that trend dead in its tracks. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War) are downright masterful at keeping Infinity War going strong from beginning to end, with never a dull moment, all the action you’d expect, far more laughs than …
[8] Nick Robinson (Jurassic World, Kings of Summer) stars as a closeted high school student who carries on an anonymous email relationship with another closeted student, all while trying to gather the courage to ‘come out’ to his family and friends. There have been many ‘coming out’ stories in independent cinema, but they’re usually sad, dreary affairs. Love, Simon, directed by Greg Berlanti (TV’s Everwood and The …
[8] Margot Robbie is Oscar-calibre as disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding, who was stripped of her titles and banned from the sport after her husband spearheaded an assault on her competitor, Nancy Kerrigan, in 1994. I, Tonya paints the picture of a young girl growing up poor and fatherless, with only a ruthless monster of a mother to guide her. Allison Janney (The West Wing) is in …
[8] Writer/director Peter Hedges (Pieces of April, About a Boy) casts his son Lucas (Manchester by the Sea, Boy Erased) alongside Julia Roberts in this emotionally gut-wrenching story of a mother trying to keep the peace at home when her drug-addicted teen comes home for Christmas. Lucas plays the addict, whose been clean and sober for a few months leading up to the movie’s opening. …
[8] Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine co-star as women running their own private girls’ school in The Children’s Hour. Hepburn’s character is about to get married to James Garner and MacLaine’s character is pretty melancholy about it. But all their lives are turned upside down when one of their young students, a particularly nasty little girl played with villainous spite by Karen Balkin, accuses the …
[8] Ridley Scott (The Martian, Alien) directs the true-life tale of the 1973 Getty kidnapping. After masked men whisk 16-year-old John Paul Getty III off the streets of Rome, his mother tries to get the ransom money from the boy’s grandfather, John Paul Getty — the richest man in the entire world at that time. But the oil tycoon won’t pay the ransom and the …
[8] Frances McDormand and Amy Adams star in this ebullient female bonding flick set in the early 1930s, about a recently fired governess (McDormand) who ingratiates herself into the employment of a ditzy actress (Adams). This film, particularly in its first half, is a serendipitous comedy full of witty dialogue and a dash of slapstick. It moves quickly and I was completely caught up in its spell. When …
[8] Writer/director Rian Johnson (Brick, Looper) picks up the reigns and steers the franchise into bold, new waters with an entry that summons Star Wars fans to let go of the past and wipe the slate clean, so that something new can begin to grow. After the fan-pandering Episode VII, something new and unpredictable was exactly what I craved in a Star Wars movie. Johnson …
[8] Seven months after the rape and murder of her daughter, a grieving mother challenges her local police department to find the culprit when she advertises on three incendiary billboards. Frances McDormand (Fargo) headlines Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which is being advertised as a comedy featuring fowl-mouthed McDormand chewing the scenery and ripping characters new assholes. And to be fair, that’s definitely part of this movie. …
[8] This is the best of the Next Generation films, in large part because it deals with one of Star Trek‘s most formidable foes, the Borg. The movie also incorporates a subplot involving warp drive inventor Zephram Cochran (James Cromwell) and the pivotal moment in human history when we made first contact with an alien species. Yes, First Contact dabbles in time travel, something the …
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