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(04/18/18 2:42am)
From Oscar winner “Get Out” to hard-R remake “It,” the horror movies of 2017 collectively grossed over $1 billion worldwide. One year later, this new golden age of horror cinema continues with John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place.” A post-apocalyptic family drama starring Krasinski and his wife, actress Emily Blunt, “A Quiet Place” uses silence to craft a tense tale of the sacrificial and protective instincts that come with parenthood.
(04/11/18 8:33am)
Throughout the 20th century, America’s royal family, the Kennedy’s, could never seem to escape tragedy. Joseph Jr. died in World War II. Rosemary was lobotomized. JFK was assassinated in 1963, followed by his younger brother, Bobby, five years later. JFK Jr. and “Kick” both died in plane crashes 51 years apart. In the summer of 1969, Ted, the last living Kennedy son, destroyed any chance he had of becoming president by fleeing the scene of a fatal accident and failing to notify the police. Nearly half a century later, “Chappaquiddick,” as written by Taylor Allen and Andrew Logan, dramatizes what happened that July night and in the week that followed. During those seven days, Ted Kennedy continually prioritized his reputation and legacy over the truth of his involuntary manslaughter of his 28-year-old passenger.
(04/04/18 5:16am)
We all want to escape reality every now and then. But what if we lived in a reality of such dead-end bleakness that we felt compelled to spend most of our waking hours plugged into a paradisiacal virtual universe? This question was the seed of Ernest Cline’s book “Ready Player One,” which was published before virtual reality gained traction as a media consumption game changer. Eight years after Warner Brothers purchased the screen rights, Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of the 2011 bestseller launches its ambitious theatrical run. An engrossing throwback to the adventurous way Spielberg made movies back in his heyday, “Ready Player One” is a virtual universe you won’t mind losing yourself in.
(03/21/18 5:20am)
In the last two awards seasons, “Call Me by Your Name” and “Moonlight,” proved that films about people from underrepresented populations can still be incredibly successful. While these films put butts in seats with their target audience, the LGBTQ community, straight moviegoers flocked to the cinema to see them too. “Love, Simon,” is the latest entry in this successful string of LGBTQ love stories. But “Love, Simon” differs from its predecessors with its wide release and its big-studio funding. Based on the book “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda,” by Becky Albertalli, and starring Nick Robinson (“Jurassic World”) in the title role, “Love, Simon” further demonstrates that LGBTQ stories have something for all of us.
(03/21/18 5:16am)
In its marketing campaign, “Thoroughbreds,” playwright Cory Finley’s big-screen directorial debut, has been pitched as “‘Heathers’ meets ‘American Psycho.’” Both films, which feature emotionally detached characters and macabre satirical humor, became cult classics in spite of low box office returns. Finley’s screenplay, which began as a stage play, shares these elements but carves out its own path as it uses a backdrop of high society and restless adolescence to ask if emotional attachment has value in a cold, calculating world.
(02/21/18 4:32am)
On Jan. 6, 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was assaulted after a practice session in Detroit. Before long, it emerged that fellow skater Tonya Harding might have had something to do with it. While Kerrigan went on to win the silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics, Harding was banned for life from professional figure skating. Almost a quarter-century later, Harding remains a pariah in the public eye. According to the onscreen text at the start of the film, the tragicomedy biopic “I, Tonya,” is based on “irony-free, wildly contradictory, totally true” interviews with Harding and ex-husband Jeff Gillooly. The film uses them to ask us: What if our notions about her were wrong?
(02/14/18 6:27am)
In each season of the true crime anthology series, “American Crime Story,” Ryan Murphy aims to revisit iconic, infamous acts of injustice that exposed our nation’s deepest-rooted social problems and called into question our sense of morality. For the multi-award winning first season, “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” Murphy used the O.J. Simpson trial to show the bigotry of America’s judicial system. The second season, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” focuses on the 1997 murder of fashion-design legend Gianni Versace and how homophobia let the killer, Andrew Cunanan, run free for so long.
(01/31/18 6:53am)
At the beginning of “Hostiles,” a father rushes into the cabin where his wife, Rosalie, is tutoring their two young daughters to inform them that an attack by Native Americans is imminent. He sacrifices himself trying to save his family , but it cruelly proves to be in vain. Less than a minute later, all three children have bullet holes in them, the cabin is on fire and the family’s horses have been taken. All of this takes place in the first few minutes of Scott Cooper’s western “Hostiles” with over two hours of running time still left to endure. A re-examination of a time in American history that’s received glamorous treatment for too long, “Hostiles” stomps on the rose-tinted glasses and gets its hands bloody without a care for viewers’ discomfort at its violence.
(01/24/18 4:33am)
As civilized as humans may delude ourselves into thinking we are, our monstrosity rears its demonic head when we encounter those we see as lesser than us. But, Guillermo del Toro’s science fiction love story “The Shape of Water,” argues that some of us still haven’t given in to fear and hatred. Del Toro’s best film since 2006’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water” celebrates the boundless nature of love.
(01/17/18 3:22pm)
“Before Watergate, there was the Pentagon Papers.” This was the first sentence of the summary for a screenplay, titled “The Post,” on the 2016 Black List, an annual compilation of the movie industry’s best unproduced scripts. The story follows the Washington Post’s role in revealing a damning classified study about the Vietnam War to the public. Written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer and directed by paragon Steven Spielberg, “The Post” milks its timeliness and tells how one woman’s bravery led to a major First Amendment victory for America’s journalists.
(01/10/18 6:24am)
“Poker isn’t a game of chance. Poker is game of skill.” So says Molly Bloom, the protagonist of “Molly’s Game.” For approximately a decade, the real-life Bloom, dubbed the “Poker Princess,” ran high-stakes poker games in Los Angeles and New York City. She chronicled these events, as well as her 2013 arrest by the FBI and the trial that ultimately sentenced her to probation over jail time, in her 2014 memoir, also titled “Molly’s Game.” Written and directed by legendary screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, the fast and furious energy of the film adaptation dares one to keep their head above water.
(01/10/18 6:19am)
People who grew up in a certain era are often territorially protective of its positive aspects. For children of the ’90s, “Jumanji” was precious, even more so in the wake of Robin Williams’ death in 2014. No wonder they were infuriated when it looked like “Jumanji” would be the next classic film in line for a reboot, in a new era that can’t resist rebooting everything from golden ages past. While most stories of cinematic reboots tend to end in disaster, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”’s destiny isn’t the trash bin. Instead, in a big surprise, this sequel/reboot is pitch-perfect in its execution because it is built with respectful comprehension of how to grow out of a legacy while forging its own.
(11/29/17 4:38am)
As teenagers, we often think our parents have no idea what we’re going through when, in reality, they do. Parents don’t usually have as much of a starring role as the youths (usually male) in coming-of-age stories. If teenage girls are present, they’re often ensemble members or supporting players, rarely given the spotlight. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird” gives both parents and young women a voice in a fascinating genre that will never run out of tales to tell.
(11/16/17 3:34am)
“Three Billboards” handles anger and trauma
(11/08/17 10:21am)
Against a black screen, operatic music swells. Then, in a flash, a graphic and lengthy close-up of open-heart surgery consumes the screen. This shocking scene warns viewers from the start that “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” is not for the queasy. In this psychological horror revenge story, director Yorgos Lanthimos transplants the nerve-shredding premises of ancient Greek tragedy into the 21st century to tell a discomforting story of the futility of control and the perils of denial.
(11/01/17 7:56am)
Hollywood creates a portal to escape into worlds where dreams come true and everyone gets a happy ending. It tends not to spend money producing movies about people who neither live the high life nor get there by the time the credits roll. “The Florida Project,” written and directed by Sean Baker, is one of those movies. In spite of its setting in the same city as the Happiest Place on Earth, the story at the center of this independent dramedy is one of hidden homelessness and the inevitability of innocence’s destruction.
(10/25/17 5:12am)
After a 75-year journey from its comic book debut to the big screen, “Wonder Woman” became this summer’s biggest hit. The film broke industry records, shattered glass ceilings and established itself as one of the greatest superhero films to date. While Wonder Woman’s origin story is well known few know the story of the character’s creation. In “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women,” writer and director Angela Robinson tells the wild truth of the backstory to Wonder Woman’s creation, which was too taboo to be spoken of for decades.
(10/18/17 5:39am)
When it comes to withstanding history’s eternal test of time, the “winners” go on to influence endless numbers of future generations while the “losers” are swept under the rug and banished into the dust of oblivion. Until 2010, the story of Abdul Karim seemed destined to be one of the latter. “Victoria & Abdul,” the cinematic presentation of his unlikely 14-year friendship with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, aims right for the heart to tell a warm, uplifting story about the unexpected places friendship can take us.
(10/04/17 5:26am)
Forty-four years ago, 90 million people sat in front of their televisions and over 30,000 filled the seats of the Houston Astrodome to watch a tennis match that was far from ordinary. This coed match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs had one of the largest audiences for a tennis match in United States history and the power to equalize American professional sports on the gender front. From the husband-and-wife directing team of “Little Miss Sunshine” comes a behind-the-scenes drama about that iconic “battle of the sexes,” and the chain of events that led to it.
(09/20/17 1:56am)
For over 40 years, Stephen King has been the horror genre’s Walt Disney, crafting genuinely tingling tales that seamlessly blend reality with the otherworldly. His literature uses the spooky as a commentary on human nature’s wicked side. The latest adaptation of his book “It” takes full advantage of its R rating, venturing into territory from which the 1990 TV mini-series version was barred. But, in an era where something scary seems to happen every day, “It” becomes a dark fairy tale about bravery in the presence of fear.
