It’s tough being the new kid in school. You don’t know anyone around you or even if you will ever make any friends. There are so many circumstances that can make an experience like this unsettling. It’s even harder when you’re also new to an entire country and culture that doesn’t understand what you say…
What I want to say about Morgan is that it was a good idea that suffered from a poor execution. Unfortunately, I can’t say that, because, aside from a partial (which is wording it generously) explanation by way of a deus ex machina (which, contrary to what is ostensibly the belief of screenwriters at large,…
Take four couples. Add various relationship issues. Sprinkle with neuroses and being more interested in others’ problems than your own. Blend in a grand house in Savannah, Georgia. Allow to simmer for 90 minutes. Serve up The Intervention, a rather creaky if well-intentioned relationship comedy-drama. Whether the film works for you or not will depend…
Following the well-laid plans of just about every pugilistic biopic ever made (with the exception of “Raging Bull” and “The Fighter”), director Jonathan Jakubowicz with Hands of Stone, plods along (just like his subject’s boxing style) in this familiar telling of the rise of a famous boxer, in this case, Roberto Durán (Edgar Ramírez, “The…
Don’t Breathe opens with a floating aerial shot over a picturesque neighborhood street. Birds chirp happily as the sun warms the trees and houses with a golden glow. From behind, we approach a man walking down this quiet street, and we discover with horror that he’s dragging something behind him — the body of a…
A sensitive loner goes undercover to infiltrate a group of skinheads and finds he may have more in common with the white supremacists he’s investigating than his FBI colleagues. Or “Donnie Brasco” meets “The Believer.” Or “Point Break” meets “American History X.” Or “Reservoir Dogs” meets “Romper Stomper.” I couldn’t help but think of other…
Kings, true kings, are superior to nobody; everybody’s their equal. That’s what makes them different. That’s what makes them especial. Kings rule over no one. A king’s true realm is their self. Ben (Viggo Mortensen, “A Dangerous Method”) and Leslie (Trin Miller, “The Invoking”) sought for this kind of kings out of their kin: Plato’s…
