“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” - John Lennon Season Three of Aziz Ansari’s excellent Netflix series “Master of None” is quite the departure. Season One was a lite and funny take on the New York dating lives of Ansari’s Dev and his close friends Denise and Arnold. Season Two was a B&W love letter to sixties Italian cinema. Where creator, writer, ... more >
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NETFLIX: “Master of None Presents: Moments in Love” (Season 3 boldly goes in a new direction and this is a take on that)
On the messiness of domestic life and sentiment
Review: “It’s easy to die. They are making it hard for us to live” | TWO GODS
Film premiered at last Hot Docs Festival
Hanif Muhammad made the conscious decision to rise above the injustice and poverty that befell him and many in his community. Muhammad found himself incarcerated due to the many bad choices made in his youth, as he went down a wrong path for many years. Allowed a second chance to rise above it all and break the stereotypes that affected many of his friends and family from his neighborhood, ... more >
Review, “THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS”
When couples separate
Chris Coy, Clayne Crawford and Sepideh Moafi
Directed by Robert Machoian
Actor Clayne Crawford impressed me with his performance in the excellent and underrated 2012 thriller, “The Baytown Outlaws.” In a film full of over-the-top violence and macho posturing, Crawford found a realistic tone to his performance which kept the film centered. His film choices have been uninteresting and haven’t challenged him as an actor since this. Crawford is back on my radar with ... more >
Juice, sweat and bike-riding desperados: “OUTLAWS”
A story of betrayal and life and death choices
Ryan Corr, Abbey Lee and Simone Kessell
Directed by Stephen McCallum
In the opening moment of “Outlaws” (scored to the Doom-tinged sound of the song “Lunacy” from the ambient-Rock group Swans), a leather-clad motorcycle gang cuts through the night streets like riders of an oncoming Apocalypse. It is a moment that immediately grabs and foreshadows the aura of the film. Director Stephen McCallum immediately assures us that his first feature film, while not ... more >
REVIEW | Stefano Sollima’s adaptation “Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse” takes almost everything from the novel and completely throws it out
New Republic Pictures / Midnight Radio / Outlier Society
Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith and Jamie Bell
Directed by Stefano Sollima
In Tom Clancy’s excellent 1993 novel “Without Remorse,” a former Navy Seal Vietnam Veteran named John Kelly loses his pregnant wife in a car accident, befriends a former prostitute, helps her kick drugs, and finds her murdered by her ex-pimp who almost kills Kelly as well. Seeking revenge by murdering pimps and drug dealers, Kelly decimates a drug ring, goes on a mission to rescue POWs and ... more >
“I lost my family for a case that I was just not able to close,” woes and the fracas of a big time L.A. police investigation in “City of Lies”
Film was in a holding pattern for three years
Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker and Toby Huss
Directed by Brad Furman
After being canned for three years (allegedly due to pressure from the Los Angeles police department) Brad Furman’s “City of Lies” was rolled out last month. Although it would have benefited from a longer running time and deeper examination into the facts (this story would shine as a three-hour street crime epic), Brad Furman’s procedural gets to the meat of the inquiry into the murders of the ... more >
Ben Wheatley’s “IN THE EARTH” (REVIEW)
Virus movie. It's happening.
Joel Fry, Reece Shearsmith and Hayley Squires
Directed by Ben Wheatley
The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard on the entire world. 2020 and, so far, 2021 have been devastating economically but, most importantly, socially. People are struggling everywhere to maintain their finances and their homes while a demon in virus form breathes its devilish fire on our planet. I’d presume the new film “In the Earth” was borne of this time, even though writer/director Ben ... more >