Years ago, I remember going to my local run-down McDonalds and while impatiently waiting for my greasy order to arrive, my restless eyes laid upon a bronze rectangular plaque of a middle-aged man named Ray Kroc. I wondered, “Who is this dude?” As I read the brief epitaph on the plaque, I learned he was…
From its opening shot of a house both sleek and warm to its transcendent finale, Arrival arrests attention with a grasp that is firm yet ephemeral. It is a sublime and profound experience, touching its audience on an emotional, intellectual and spiritual level, a film that declares both its originality and its ancestry. And what…
“It’s been a while since New York had news this good — especially with an airplane in it.” What if your instincts indicated you were correct, but training, technology and computer evidence proved you were wrong? How would you deal with it? Those are the questions in the newest Clint Eastwood-directed film, Sully, the biopic…
The year is 1990. The place is a rural Minnesota town and a man there reports to the police station because his daughter has accused him of raping her. John Gray (David Dencik, “The Homesman”) is polite, cooperative, and remorseful, yet he claims to have no memory of the crime. He insists his daughter is…
The lyrical lad of film-making, in the form of Irish writer-director John Carney (who gave us the wonderfully musical drama in 2007’s “Once”), is at it again as he brings the continued inspiration of music and motivation in the engagingly festive coming-of-age musical melodrama Sing Street. Carney, the former member of the Irish rock group…
A common criticism of modern filmmaking is a lack of originality. And in a medium of formulaic genre styles that thrive on remakes, reboots, sequels and extended cinematic universes, it’s perhaps a valid point to make. Yet there is one main advantage to movies that carry a sense of familiarity — consistency. Whether it is…
The feature directorial debut of Dan Beers, Premature, doesn’t capture the complete or debaucherous high school experience like most of its raunch-fest predecessors (“American Pie,” “Superbad”) do, but the comedy is smart and in tune with a new generation of frustrated hornballs. At its heart is high school senior Rob (John Karna) and his world…
