Near the end of the new action headache “Bullet Train” a character is trying to stop the titular train as it speeds out of control. Desperately trying every switch and button he screams for the roaring machine to stop. After the first forty-five minutes of “Train” I wanted the same thing. “Bullet Train” is a live-action cartoon of violence and over-the-top madness that entertains but runs ... more >
ARCHIVES
REVIEW | A lemon and a Ladybug walk into the café car; “BULLET TRAIN”
Hang on to the bitter end
Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Directed by David Leitch
Brad Pitt sets off in search of a father in mesmerizing “Ad Astra”
The universe is big, lest we forget
Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones and Ruth Negga
Directed by James Gray
“Ad astra,” the new film by James Gray, is more meditation than story. The title (one half of the latin phrase “per aspera ad astra” or “through hardships to the stars”) is apt given the amount of time travel and the fascinating hardware that allows it, though the tale meanders, causing some confusion. With various stellar transportation modes, it takes us from one distant planet to the next ... more >
TAKE TWO – “Once upon a time in Hollywood”
Pitch perfect, maestro, pitch perfect
Leonardo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
I think cinema, I love cinema, I see a great number of films during the year and always have. If asked to list great director names, I would reply, Fellini, Bergman, Fassbinder, Kurosawa and Kubrick. Though a hundred names would barely begin to cover it. But… and oh, yes, Tarentino. Despite not much enjoying his movies—too much violence, albeit often humorous, rivers of blood, and a permanent ... more >
CANNES FESTIVAL – A very tarantinesque UPON UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD came and went (Best Acting Prize to Leonardo DiCaprio, please!)
This film is competing for the Palme D'Or
This year, there was a before- and an after-Tarantino Cannes Festival. Quentin Tarantino's new film “Once upon a time in Hollywood” was the marker. And it was also the most anticipated film of the 2019 festival. What a party! There is no other American auteur who can command the kinds of huge crowds like the ones seen yesterday in Cannes, when he and the cast walked the red carpet. The Croisette ... more >
“Beautiful Boy,” or how the loving and considerate can also be destructive and self-obsessed
Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell
Directed by Felix Van Groeningen
It is a fact, sadly, that addiction will touch almost everyone’s lives, even the most accomplished among us. This is what happened to Nic Sheff, a top-of-his-class teen who started experimenting with pot before moving into harder drugs, gradually spiraling into a harrowing cycle of highs, lows, homelessness, sobriety and relapse. His father, Rolling Stone writer David Sheff, could only watch ... more >
Allied, the good, and the bad
A decent idea of a film, lacking a payoff
Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Oh, what, you want to talk about “Allied,” the film? Where’s the fun in that? Wouldn’t you rather talk about Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Marion Cotillard? Popcorn, please! Look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. Would you really rather go in-depth on the art direction? Twice Brad Pitt has made espionage movies about a spy married to a woman who might be an enemy out to betray him. ... more >
12 Years a slave
The story that needs to be retold
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o and Michael Fassbender
Directed by Steve McQueen
Among movies about race in America, how many great films have been made about slavery? We’ve seen gentle drivers ("Driving Miss Daisy"), sisterhoods of maids ("The Help") and pizza places going up in smoke for our sins ("Do the Right Thing"). Most of these films focus on the sixties or the modern day. Even Lincoln barely touches on slavery as more than legal theory. This enormous, shocking gap ... more >