Reviews

An effective translation of a comic strip into an auction film, it is even more effective than Spider-Man: No Way Home and rivals the 1993 Batman, Mask of the Phantasm which was on my top ten list that year.  The use of comic book stills that float and turn into activity are unique and give […]

You Hurt My Feelings stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies and Michaela Watkins among as capable ensemble. Louis-Dreyfus’ Beth is having trouble following up her memoir with a novel that is not getting the feedback from editor after many drafts while her egotistical therapist husband Don (Menzies) feels unfulfilled in his profession and is considering an […]

Gerard Butler’s latest is competently made, but as a tale of espionage and escape it comes across mostly obfuscating and tedious than insightful and compelling.  Kandahar stars the Greenland and Plane actor in brooding, gruff form as a CIA operative who gets in a sticky situation after a stint as an internet specialist for the […]

Staring:  A 1989 animated classic from the House That Mouse Built gets the live-action treatment from Rob Marshall (Chicago) without any similar cinematic verve. Yes, a musical production like this has its spiffy contemporary polish that unfortunately leans towards box-office receipts not rally inducing a lot more than audience goodwill and talent at hand. Still, […]

More exasperating than enriching is Paul Schrader’s latest allegorical melodrama starring Joel Edgerton (The Gift) and Sigourney Weaver (Dave, and Avatar: The Way of Water). Of course with another protagonist filling up  nutria on n anonymous inn.  The accomplished provocateur caps off his First Reformed and The Card Counter with a prickly, rather preposterous examination […]