Noble Intentions Can’t Keep “Green Book” From Playing as an Outdated Throwback
Mahershala Ali gives one of the best performances of the year as Dr. Don Shirley in the new movie Green Book. Nuanced and witty, his take on the role of the virtuoso pianist being chauffeured around the South for a concert tour is filled with grace, humanity and wry humor. Too bad the rest of the […]
“Widows” Adds Character and Depth to The Heist Genre
Audiences have gotten used to heist movies being buoyant and comedic, what with the likes of the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy and other caper movies over the decades. Now, Widows shatters all those expectations with a gravely serious heist drama that is less interested in the intricacies of the scheme and far more so in the […]
“The Front Runner” Paints a Confounding Picture of American Politics
Director Jason Reitman’s new film The Front Runner is a difficult one to wrap your head around. Ostensibly, a dark comedy about the blurring of lines between the legitimate press and tabloid practices, as well as a candidate’s public and private lives, the movie struggles with its POV. Do Reitman and his fellow writers Matt […]
“A Private War” is a Timely Reminder of the Necessity of Journalism
In a week when the POTUS continued to rail on the press corps as “the enemy of the people” and rudely maligned some reporters, along comes a film about journalist Marie Colvin that couldn’t be timelier. The story of her intrepid career is the focus of A Private War, particularly the many conflicts in the […]
A Strong Claire Foy Gets Stuck As “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”
In The Girl in the Spider’s Web, Claire Foy picks up the mantle from Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara in rendering the role of Lisbeth Salander, Stieg Larsson’s Swedish punk heroine from his Millennium Trilogy. It’s a million miles from her turn as Queen Elizabeth on The Crown, and she runs with the chance to […]
