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 […]
“The Haunting of Hill House” Made for 2018’s Best Horror On Netflix
The year in 2018 horror has seen such lauded stand-outs as A Quiet Place, Hereditary, and for some, even the reboot of Halloween. Yet, for as much acclaim as these big screen frighteners have garnered, the most significant achievement in the genre happened on Netflix this past October. There, the streaming miniseries The Haunting of Hill […]
“The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” Will Charm Kids More Than Adults
The new Disney film The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is many things: a children’s adventure story, an eye-popping spectacle, and a 109-minute endorsement of animated mice. (CGI rodents, actually. Mickey’s heirs?) What it isn’t, is the Nutcracker story in any traditional sense. Here, the famous ballet and score are almost treated as afterthoughts. Instead, this […]
“The Hate U Give” Mixes Character and Politics for a Potent Punch
The Hate U Give may be a YA adaptation but its story is bigger and weightier than most aimed at teens. This is a brilliantly nuanced film that should appeal to adults as well as younger audiences with its rich characters and complex emotions. It also makes a number of bold statements concerning race, sex, […]
The New “Halloween” Struggles to Add to John Carpenter’s Classic
Expectations were raised sky high with all the press and PR attached to this latest take on Halloween. The new sequel/reboot/annulment of the previous seven sequels was supposed to be the best of all of those that followed John Carpenter’s original 1978 classic. While it’s competently made and contains a full-throttled performance by star Jamie […]
