Dan is an author, film critic and media professional. He is a former staff writer for the N.Y. Daily News, where he served as a film/TV reviewer with a "Top Critic" designation on Rotten Tomatoes. His debut historical fiction novel, "Synod," was published by an independent press in Jan. 2018, receiving praise among indie book reviewers. His research interests include English, military and political history.
Director Andy Goddard’s British war drama, Six Minutes to Midnight, starts off strong — with sweeping tracking shots of the English coast, fitting period attire, and an underlying sense of “doom” matching a continent on the brink of war. In fact, the film’s opening act is quite intriguing — dropping viewers into a peculiar English…
In filmmaker Erik Nelson’s unfiltered new World War II documentary, Apocalypse ’45, viewers are thrust into the final days of merciless war in the Pacific Theater, a small-gain, island-by-island approach against a dogged Japanese enemy that viewed surrender as weakness. As an often overlooked facet of World War II, the Pacific killed or wounded some…
Bona fide Hollywood A-lister, Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), strikes again in Greyhound, a World War II-set drama that drops viewers into the exceedingly cold, choppy waters of the Atlantic in the winter of 1942, as Allied forces attempt to deliver troops and supplies to the European Theatre. Director Aaron Schneider, who…
A nominal sequel to Mel Gibson’s 1995 epic “Braveheart” sounds thrilling all around — bringing viewers back to Scotland’s bloody medieval war cry against the brute, Edward Longshanks of England. Enter Robert the Bruce. In it, Angus Macfadyen (“The Lost City of Z”) also reprises his role as Scottish freedom fighter, Robert the Bruce. Yes,…
1917 is director Sam Mendes’ first film since 2015’s 007 picture, “Spectre,” and no doubt reaches the pantheon of respected war films. A Best Picture contender at this year’s Academy Awards, the film is a visual masterpiece, aided by the lens of 15-time Oscar nominee Roger Deakins, strong direction and an uncompromising look at No…
No doubt, Disney and Lucasfilm were faced with a monumental task by ending the Skywalker saga — the ninth film in a franchise that changed the course of filmmaking and introduced generations of viewers to freewheeling, space-opera arcs and settings. Inherent in that task: The risk of polarizing a temperamental fan base and bookending “Star…
Director James Gray, whose last film, “The Lost City of Z,” garnered serious praise upon release in 2016, has continued his win streak in the exploratory sci-fi film Ad Astra, the Latin phrase for “to the stars.” This Brad Pitt vehicle stands as a powerful character study within a plausible near-future universe, with a hefty…
