In the past, epic interpretations of the Bible like “The Passion of the Christ” or “Noah” have sought box office success on the weekend of Palm Sunday. These films are costly and often met with a divisive eye, both within Christianity and outside depending on the audience they want to reach.…

As Disney live-action remakes go, “Dumbo” is one of the better ones. Tim Burton (“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”) puts his creative visual spin on the 1941 original cartoon.

Following up on the kind of success Jordan Peele had with directorial debut “Get Out” was always going to be an anticipated event, hard to satisfy. “Us” will please the fans who discovered “Get Out” before it became a phenomenon and Oscar winner. What it won’t do, is make the leap to awards …

It’s usually a bad sign when half of Hollywood’s A-list actors circle a project and then drop out. Everyone from Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Casey Affleck, and Mahershala Ali were at once attached to “Triple Frontier.” Writer/director J.C. Chandor has made 4 movies, 3 of them have been about corr…

Can a film be both really good and yet stereotypical in every way? “Arctic” is the best film of 2019, so far. The survival thriller received a ten-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, but there isn’t much to celebrate in this compact 90-minute thriller that you can’t find els…

“Isn’t It Romantic” might be the first film to successfully please both those who despise romantic comedies and those who love them. Director Todd Strauss-Schulson describes his new film as “a romantic comedy about falling in love with yourself.” The script simultaneously makes fun of every …

It’s been nearly two decades since Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt starred in the original “What Women Want.”

There is an emerging trend in the film industry of remaking and Americanizing foreign films for the U.S. market. Of course this is nothing new, it’s been happening for decades, but never in such large numbers. The level and quality of foreign films is what has changed, as seen in the 2018 Ac…

Instead of offering up another film review for a mediocre January release, lets take a look at the 91st Oscar nominations that were unveiled Tuesday morning, what’s going to happen this Sunday at The Screen Actors Guild Awards and what insights attending this year’s Critics Choice Awards gave me.

If you have ever watched or been that child who bangs his toys together out of pure destruction, out of boredom or just being done with those particular toys, you can imagine what “Glass” is like through an adult prism. Writer and director M. Night Shyamalan is a polarizing filmmaker whose c…

Comedian and Oscar nominated actor John C. Reilly had a busy year: riding alongside Joaquin Phoenix in the Western; “The Sisters Brothers,” voicing the title character in “Ralph Breaks the Internet;” seen here in “Stan & Ollie;” and ending the year re-teaming with pal Will Ferrell in “Ho…

Mimi Leder’s "On the Basis of Sex" is a nice movie with good intentions. Its release comes on the heels of the award-winning documentary, "RBG," detailing the life of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The film seeks to introduce viewing audiences to the earlier part of Ginsberg’s li…

Nicole Kidman hasn’t transformed herself on screen this drastically since playing Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” which won her an Academy Award. Kidman is the only reason to see “Destroyer,” in which she plays an irritable detective chasing suspects, carrying heavy firearms, and beating bad …

Peter Hedges’ (“Pieces of April”) new film has a genius teaser trailer showing Julia Roberts emotionally embracing her son played by Lucas Hedges. The rest of the film, and its many surprise narrative turns, you will have to see for yourself.

The book “Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart” by John Guy makes a lot of assumptions that one can only wonder if they are true or just wishful thinking. If you are able to set aside questions of historical inaccuracy, “Mary, Queen of Scots” will prove an enjoyable, diverse experien…