It’s been five years since the last “Harry Potter” movie was released, and now it’s finally time to revisit J.K. Rowling’s expansive wizarding world. In “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” director David Yates, who directed the last four films in the “Harry Potter” franchise, transports the audience into the wizarding world located in America. The film manages...
Director Mel Gibson could have created a banal war-hero movie with this World War Two biopic “Hacksaw Ridge.” While the plot somewhat utilizes the overused Florence Nightingale effect (a trope where a war soldier falls in love with their caretaker) and solely focuses its narrative on a single American war hero, Gibson still manages to craft a compelling film...
On a cozy island located near New England, 12-year-olds Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop have begun writing letters to one another. On the surface, Sam and Suzy appear to be much like any ordinary child their age living in a small town community. Sam is an intelligent and ingenuitive "Khaki Scout" in a local summer camp, and Suzy is...
Remember “The Happening”? What a stinker. Remember “Unbreakable”? What a classic. For a little over 10 years, director M. Night Shyamalan has been putting out nothing but heaps of garbage like “The Happening,” forcing audiences to wonder how the man was likened to Alfred Hitchcock early on in his career. Some credited 2015’s “The Visit” as a return-to-form for...
“Hardcore Henry” is about as fun as watching someone else play a video game. And not a particularly good one. Now, before you Let’s Play fans start whining so loud that your mom has to come into the room to check on you, this isn’t what I’m referring to. There’s no humorous commentary, no levity and no fun to...
If there has been a movie so far this year that has proven that comedy and depth can successfully co-exist, it would be “Barbershop: The Next Cut.” I know that that sounds strange, since a majority of the movie happens within a hair salon and because the urban-Chicago setting of the movie suggests the inclusion of excessive gang violence...
Shuri is a lot like most younger siblings: Her most defining feature is her spunk — she’s unwilling (or perhaps unable) to engage in conversation with her older brother without throwing in a joke at his expense — but give her a bit of time and the wisdom and compassion come through. “Just because something works,” she tells him...
“13th” tells the harrowing tale of modern day slavery in America’s prison industry. From the beginning, powerful imagery traces the roots of inequality back to the antebellum South. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay does a brilliant job of conveying this systematic injustice in an easy-to-comprehend format by focusing on the money-making machine that is the current prison system.
The title of...
“Weiner” is a 2016 documentary directed by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg about Anthony Weiner’s turbulent run for New York City mayor in 2013. For those unfamiliar with Weiner (as I was prior to watching the film’s trailer), rest assured that “Weiner” provides plenty of information on its subject. That said, there was never a point in the film...
In memory of Anton Yelchin, 1989-2016.
Navigating the spotless, pearly interiors of the Connecticut mansion where most of “Thoroughbreds” takes place is a foreign exercise, the old-money exuberance displayed having more in common with a Giger-esque tesseract than any house most of the world is familiar with. Much of the film takes place here, though perhaps only a quarter of...