Neighbors (Bad Neighbours)
BBB.5 (out of 5) Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne have a new baby, a new house and, like most people in their circumstances, are both excited about the future and terrified that all the good… Continue reading
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The Opposite Sex
BBB (out of 5) Watered down remake of The Women that tries to capture the success of How To Marry A Millionaire by ruining the fun and having men actually appear on screen. June Allyson is the… Continue reading
America, America
BBBBB (out of 5) After a decade of scintillating stage and literary adaptations, director Elia Kazan turns to more autobiographical material with a beautifully wrought film that might just be his masterpiece. Himself… Continue reading
Edward, My Son
BB.5 (out of 5) Robert Morley and Noel Langley’s play is adapted into pure film treacle, imagine an update of Cavalcade and you have an idea of what you’re watching. Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr are both… Continue reading
A Closed Book (Blind Revenge)
BBB (out of 5) A famous art critic (Tom Conti) lives in his aristocratic family’s country manor after having been gruesomely injured in a car accident that took both his eyes and left… Continue reading
The Driver’s Seat (Identikit)
BB (out of 5) Elizabeth Taylor appears in one of her strangest films as a woman wandering Italy in search of something bad. Picking up an assortment of random strangers as companions or random… Continue reading
Under Milk Wood
BB.5 (out of 5) Dylan Thomas’ popular radio drama is adapted to film with a number of stars making brief and, in some cases, obscure appearances, including Peter O’Toole, Elizabeth Taylor, Glynis Johns, and Richard… Continue reading
Julia Misbehaves
BBBB (out of 5) Positively delightful, this is one of many films that Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon made together but the only time they tried comedy. She plays a capricious theatrical actress… Continue reading
Never Fear
BBB.5 (out of 5) Ida Lupino began her directorial career with this sensitive portrayal of a dancer dealing with the personal setback of illness. While enjoying a successful partnership with Keefe Brasselle, both… Continue reading
Norman…Is That You?
BB.5 (out of 5) Redd Foxx leaves Tucson and shows up at his son’s Los Angeles apartment unannounced, shocked by what he finds: a man in his boy’s bed! Grappling with the news that… Continue reading
How The West Was Won
BBB.5 (out of 5) Epic look at a century’s worth of American history, from settlers making their way west, through to the Civil War, the creation of the railroad and the earliest days… Continue reading
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
BBBB (out of 5) Without a doubt one of the funniest movies ever made. Charles Grodin is magnificent as a lonely singleton who marries a nice Jewish girl (Jeannie Berlin, who is director Elaine… Continue reading
I Don’t Know How She Does It
BB.5 (out of 5) Sarah Jessica Parker is a successful trader at a financial investment firm who has a loving husband (Greg Kinnear) at home and two growing children. It’s the age of having… Continue reading
The Music Man
BB (out of 5) Meredith Willson’s eternally popular musical steeped in cloying Americana has been turned into a giant, thoroughly irritating film experience. Robert Preston is still playing for the third balcony as the… Continue reading
Possessed (1947)
BBB (out of 5) Joan Crawford is madly in love with architect Van Heflin, but he’s had his fun with her and doesn’t want to get married. She is devastated and goes back to her… Continue reading
When Time Ran Out…
BB.5 (out of 5) Most of Irwin Allen’s disaster epics are laughably corny, but it’s important to distinguish between the ones that are fun to sit through and those that are a chore.… Continue reading
The Whisperers
BBB.5 (out of 5) Edith Evans is excellent as a woman who is slowly losing touch with reality thanks to the decay of age and her perpetual loneliness. Among her many delusions are her… Continue reading
Nightmare Alley
BBBB (out of 5) Tyrone Power plays the member of a carnival troop who longs to make himself the star attraction, scheming his way into Joan Blondell‘s arms and convincing her to teach… Continue reading
The Only Game In Town
BB.5 (out of 5) Vegas showgirl Elizabeth Taylor stops at a divey bar for a drink and is charmed enough by the joint’s pianist (Warren Beatty) to take him home. She’s looking to alleviate… Continue reading
Patton
BBBB (out of 5) George C. Scott soars in this fascinating biopic of General George S. Patton. He makes a name for himself after a successful 1942 campaign against Rommel in North Africa that… Continue reading
The White Cliffs Of Dover
BBB (out of 5) Irene Dunne is lovely in this fifteen-hankie tragedy, which begins with her as an aging nurse helping out with injured World War II soldiers and hoping that her son won’t… Continue reading
Night Watch
BB.5 (out of 5) The closest Elizabeth Taylor ever came to starring in a horror movie was her appearance in this quickie thriller that has only a few brief chill-worthy moments. She is recovering… Continue reading
The Blue Bird
B (out of 5) The first Soviet-American co-production, meant to outwit the political battles of the Cold War by showing the unifying nature of art; the effort was something of a failure since… Continue reading
The Awakening
BB.5 (out of 5) With so many dead and so many mourning after the end of the Great War, Europe sees a rising interest in the occult thanks to people’s desire to communicate… Continue reading
Fifty Shades Darker
BB.5 (out of 5) You didn’t think she could stay away from all that light spanking forever, did you? Having now gotten her dream job in publishing as assistant to a handsome editor,… Continue reading
The Beguiled (2017)
BB.5 (out of 5) A little girl collecting mushrooms just beyond the grounds of her plantation in Civil War-ravaged Virginia discovers a severely injured Irish mercenary turned Yankee soldier (Colin Farrell) lying in… Continue reading
Black Eagle
BB (out of 5) An American plane carrying a nuclear device crashes into the Mediterranean and two superpowers are competing to retrieve it. The C.I.A. has its best man (Shô Kosugi) on the… Continue reading
Like You Mean It
BB.5 (out of 5) Philipp Karner, who also writes and directs, plays a struggling actor in Los Angeles whose stressful professional life is weighing heavily on his private one. He has been with… Continue reading
Below Sea Level
BBBB (out of 5) Approximately two hundred miles outside of Los Angeles is a barren landscape where people have to come to live a lawless existence, sleeping in their cars or trailers and… Continue reading
Fifty Shades of Grey
BB (out of 5) Inexplicable success in bookstores led to this inevitable big screen adaptation of the first of E.L. James’ trilogy of books, about a love affair between a young college student… Continue reading
The Mummy (2017)
BB.5 (out of 5) The reboot that no one needed, this adventure film is never scary and is not particularly smart, but it’s easy enough to sit through. A miscast Tom Cruise and… Continue reading
Older Brother, Younger sister (Ani Imoto)
BBBB (out of 5) Yoshiko Kuga is excellent as a young woman in a remote village who cannot marry her sweetheart because her elder sister (played by megastar Machiko Kyô) has a bad reputation… Continue reading
The Wind
BBBB (out of 5) Lillian Gish heads west from her native Virginia to live with a male cousin and his careworn wife, but before long her beauty and instant rapport with their children… Continue reading
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
BBBB (out of 5) Dav Pilkey’s popular children’s books are brought to the big screen with their winsome humour and charming sass fully intact. Harold and George, voiced with joyful appeal by Thomas… Continue reading
Rough Night
B (out of 5) All the elements should combine into something that works and yet very little in this comedy does. Take the common plot of a Boys Will Be Boys indulgence (bachelor… Continue reading
My Cousin Rachel (1952)
BBBB (out of 5) Daphne Du Maurier’s captivating mystery was barely on the shelves for a year when this big screen adaptation was released, introducing mass audiences to the talent of Richard Burton in… Continue reading
Beatriz At Dinner
B.5 (out of 5) Salma Hayek is magnificent as a masseuse and healer who drives to Connie Britton‘s mansion to give her a massage before a dinner party and then, when her car won’t… Continue reading
A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy)
BBBB (out of 5) Niko’s day gets off to a bad start and only gets weirder as the hours progress: following an immature cop-out with his girlfriend, he meets with a court officer… Continue reading
Wasp (2015)
BB (out of 5) Olivier and James are going on for a minibreak to Olivier’s summer home in the south of France and have brought along a last minute addition: James ran into… Continue reading
My Cousin Rachel (2017)
BBBB (out of 5) Orphaned Sam Claflin was raised by his loving, older cousin (also played by Claflin) who, once his ward has arrived at adulthood, spends his last few years in southern Europe… Continue reading
The Surface
BB (out of 5) Evan is finishing school and living with his boyfriend and, judging by the waifish manner with which he carries himself in every situation, is uncertain of his goals or… Continue reading
Graduation (Bacalaureat)
BBBB (out of 5) Just before writing her final exams, Eliza is assaulted on the street by an unseen attacker; her father Romeo, a doctor who deals with his estranged marriage from his… Continue reading
Alice Sweet Alice (Communion)
BB (out of 5) A wonderful plot is ruined by terrible direction in this cultish curiousity, one whose initial release was saved from complete obscurity by the fact that it features the film… Continue reading
A Very Sordid Wedding
BBB (out of 5) Del Shores has been treating audiences to the lives and loves of his quirky, campy characters for so long that he has their details down pat , and this… Continue reading
Paris Can Wait
BB.5 (out of 5) Diane Lane has accompanied movie producer husband Alec Baldwin to the Cannes Film Festival and is now about to fly with him to the location of a film he… Continue reading
Wonder Woman
BBBB (out of 5) On the enchanted island of Themyscira, a race of godlike Amazons train for battle in their female-only paradise, led by an awe-inspiring Connie Nielsen, placed there by Zeus as… Continue reading
Center of My World (Die Mitte der Welt)
BBB.5 (out of 5) Phil has been raised in the German countryside since his mother (whom he calls “Glass”) gave birth to him and his twin sister after running away from their father in America.… Continue reading
Handsome Devil
BBB (out of 5) With his father and stepmother living in Dubai, Ned has been left behind to attend a posh boarding school in his native Ireland and couldn’t possibly be more miserable:… Continue reading
I Dream In Another Language (Sueno en Otro Idioma)
BBBB (out of 5) A mesmerizing experience that casts a spell from its opening shot. Martin, a Mexico City university student studying linguistics, heads to a rural village looking to speak to the last two living… Continue reading