Transformers: Age of Extinction is fascinating. Not in a good movie kind of way. Not even in a bad movie kind of way (although, make no mistake, it is positively atrocious). It is fascinating in that it feels as if it were the result of an experiment to see what a diagnosed sociopath would turn…
The 1920’s were the culmination of the greatest wave of immigration in American history in which more than 25 million people arrived, mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, to escape the aftermath of the Great War and its resulting poverty and oppression, or simply to embrace the promise of the “American Dream.” Many of these…
During the course of three years, director Jeremy Frindel traveled with Kirtan singer Jeffrey Kagel, now known to the world as Krishna Das, interviewing many of his colleagues and tapping into his strengths, not only as a Grammy Award winning singer, but also as a teacher, healer, and a man of depth and compassion. The…
Anticipating the appearance of Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt), a prominent food critic, Carl Casper (Jon Favreau), a respected chef at a popular restaurant in Los Angeles, wants to add some innovations to the restaurant’s tried and true menu. Riva (Dustin Hoffman), the bistro owner, however, tells him to stick to what has always worked, a…
Channing Tatum has found his calling. Well, he really found it in 2012 during the “21 Jump Street” reboot, where the cardboard cut-out with matinee idol good looks suddenly came alive in front of the camera with an inspired and lovable comic performance. After that, he mostly returned to generic action roles (“G.I. Joe: Retaliation”…
Built as either a shot to attain a loftier reputation or as penance for afflicting four goddamned “Shrek” movies upon the populace (perhaps both), Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 finds the red-headed stepchild studio attempting to go full Pixar and widen the emotional scope of what has been, to date, probably their…
Jorge Dorado knows a thing or two about memory and time. The Spanish director worked with the legendary Pedro Almodóvar on such films as “Talk To Her” in 2002 and “Bad Education” in 2004, and now on his own addresses the power of the mind in his feature debut with the sensual thriller Anna. The…
