Is Le Mans ’66 (also known as “Ford v Ferrari” in the U.S.) about racing? It’s a question comparable to “Is ‘Jaws’ about a shark?” or “Is ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ about espionage?” Certainly racing features in the film, leading up to, as it does, the 1966 Le Mans Grand Prix, as well as other…
In many ways, director Dome Karukoski’s Tolkien is a fine film — a definitive sampling of J.R.R. Tolkien’s formative years and a nicely fleshed-out character study. Yet, it also plays as programming you might find on a PBS “Masterpiece” program, with nicely defined Edwardian settings, fine period costumes and impressive performances all around. Still, similar…
With a CRACK! that delivers aural and narrative impact, Red Sparrow lays out its cards early on. This CRACK! occurs during a ballet and highlights a key tension of such a performance — any mistake can be disastrous. In this case, the incident involving the CRACK! does prove devastating and foreshadows the ruin to come….
The Greatest Showman is a confusing animal. Its opening frames begin the movie by displaying the familiar and orchestral 20th Century Fox logo used from the 50s through the 80s, implying the audience is in for a reverent throwback to the classic Hollywood musicals of yore. Then — literally six seconds later — the studio’s…
The heated romantic passion of Charles Martin’s best-selling romance novel “The Mountain Between Us,” turns lukewarm in its cinematic version of the same name that stars Kate Winslet (“Collateral Beauty”) and Idris Elba (“The Dark Tower”) as a couple of strangers stranded in the frigid high-mountain snow of the Rocky Mountains. Alex Martin (an excellent…
Have you ever been so happy to be wrong? I remember when “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” was being advertised, and I wanted no part of it. I loved the original series in its high and lows, but the Tim Burton remake had completely soured my desire for any new take on what…
I’m spending more time than I should trying to guess if the many vagina jokes in Amy Schumer’s sophomore effort are the reason for its title, Snatched, or not. I’m leaning towards a “yes” because using a double entendre is clever, lots of vagina jokes are funny — at least that’s what Ms. Schumer wants…
