Train to Busan (Busanhaeng) movie review: delays due to zombies
This South Korean hit is an oozy doozy of a horror-thriller; confidently spins out its own unique — and breathless — take on familiar genre tropes.
Star Trek Beyond movie review: future positive (but it won’t come easily)
Intense action; smart, funny nods to its roots while moving in a new direction; and explicit confrontation of a problem always at the heart of Star Trek.
Ice Age: Collision Course movie review: where is a mass extinction when you need one?
The Ice Age flicks are the cinematic equivalent of drive-through nuggets of reconstituted chicken slurry served by a bored teenager in a cardboard hat.
Love Between the Covers documentary review: respect for romance
Delightful. A sharp, affectionate peek inside the cozy, supportive community of writers and readers that drives multibillion-dollar romance book publishing.
Ghostbusters movie review: boo yeah!
Kate McKinnon’s gleefully reckless physicist is brainy comic mayhem, unlike any female character we’ve seen before. And there are more reasons to cheer.
the pioneering women of documentary film
I wrote a thing for PBS’s Independent Lens blog. Here’s the beginning… [This post is not behind the paywall.]
Now You See Me 2 movie review: now you don’t
The delicately balanced foolishness of Now You See Me gives way to impossibly supernatural magic tricks aimed at thwarting the least menacing villain ever.
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie review: grab the Bolly, darling
Sends up one-upwomanship, egotistical self-help, and reflexive hedonism with zing. It is a sheer triumph to see two older women being really funny onscreen.
Weiner documentary review: the unchecked narcissism of politics
Hugely watchable cautionary tale of Shakespearean proportions about 21st-century politics. Beautifully, nastily perfect in its ironies and twists.
The Secret Life of Pets movie review: dogs and cats living together…
Charming. A cleverly constructed and amusingly rendered fantasy adventure that sings with a sweet, wistful devotion to home, family, and friendship.
