Allen Packwood, director of the Churchill Archives Centre referred to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as an “incredibly complex, contradictory, and larger-than-life human being.” This complexity is lost, however, in Joe Wright’s (“Pan”) Darkest Hour, a look at a crucial time in British Prime Minister Churchill’s stewardship that covers the period from May 10,…
The unconventional marriage of playoff baseball fever and music artistry go hand-in-hand in Pearl Jam: Let’s Play Two, an excitable and sentimental documentary that chronicles Pearl Jam gleefully situated in the middle of the hysteria surrounding the Chicago Cubs 2016 dream season which saw the team overcome a century-old dry-spell and win the World Series….
While we know that some monsters are decidedly not lovable, the creature in Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, like many humans who roam the planet, is more of a lonely outcast seeking connection than a life-threatening presence. Performed by Doug Jones (“The Bye Bye Man”) underneath all the prosthetics, this monster…
Never tell Rian Johnson the odds! The director’s efforts in Star Wars: The Last Jedi prove that science fiction fables can be the jack of all trades: Clever, entertaining and stirring. That said, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is certainly a “Star Wars” movie — it has the showy exterior, the Jedi lore and the…
James Brown. Jackie Robinson. Thurgood Marshall. Besides being brilliant black pioneers in their respected careers, what do they have in common? They were all played by the same rising young Hollywood actor: Chadwick Boseman (“Gods of Egypt”). His name may not ring a bell since most of his movies haven’t exactly been major box office…
In 1960, primatologist Jane Goodall, the 26-year-old secretary of paleontologist Louis Leakey, was chosen to conduct research in Africa for his study of the influence of apes on primitive man. Though she was not a scientist and never attended university, her open mind, love of animals, and the strong support she received from her mother…
In Chinese culture, the number three is considered lucky for its similarity to the character meaning “life” or “to give birth.” As such, Mountains May Depart makes no small use of significant triptychs in telling its story. The film is segmented into three disparate chapters and time periods; its three main characters are caught up…
