The resiliency of the human spirit is pummeled by a squall of sentimentality in Baltasar Kormákur’s based-on-a-true-story survival drama Adrift, which long vacillates between prettily photographed seafaring and soggy backstory. The movie opens thrillingly in the chaotic aftermath of a storm that has left a luxurious sailboat in ruins and protagonist Tami (Shailene Woodley, “Allegiant”)…
Hearts Beat Loud takes some time to find its rhythm, but soon settles into an easy-going beat that makes for an enjoyable summer flick. With Nick Offerman (“The Founder”) playing lovable single dad Frank and Kiersey Clemons (“Flatliners”) as his hip, but driven, daughter Sam, it’s hard not to be pulled into this charming tale…
“The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori (“It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”)” — Wilfred Owen In his film “Of Gods and Men,” director Xavier Beauvois tells the story of seven Roman Catholic French Trappist monks kidnapped from their monastery in a village in Algeria by radical Islamists…
An older major league baseball player becoming a spy for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II to foil an atomic bomb plot has enough palpable atmosphere to be a compelling and pulpy noir. What is even more intriguing, is that it actually occurred. Based off the 1994 biography written by Nicholas…
Mackenzie Davis (“Tully”) is currently in that sweet spot where she can do no wrong. She’s a highlight of every movie she appears in and continues to be a lively, engaging presence. Her starring role in the sketchy indie comedy Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town is no exception. Without Davis, the movie would quickly…
In a day where some churches feel that the larger donation you make, the closer you will be to God, and where the biggest donors are the ones despoiling the planet, there are several choices you can make: Blow yourself up and take some transgressors with you, accept it and internalize your despair, or find…
“The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded” — Ralph Waldo Emerson In Lucrecia Martel’s masterfully hypnotic Zama, the sensuous and seductive Luciana Pinares de Lueñga (Lola Dueñas, “Can’t Say Goodbye”) says that “Europe is best remembered by those who were never there.” If Zama is any indication, we might…
