The Benedict Cumberbatch cat movie is better than the Benedict Cumberbatch dog movie, in our view. Not just because the dog movie has no dogs, just shadow that looks a but like one, whereas the cat movie has actual cats, lots of them, some of which speak to us via subtitles, but because the cat […]
I remember the first time I saw “West Side Story.” I watched the 1961 film during class at my Catholic elementary school decades later — on a square TV on a rolling cart — and it was transformative. I immediately loved the music, choreography, dancing, characters, and storytelling. I watch that version from time to […]
Musical Masterpiece: Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story”
We haven’t had a good old-fashioned exorcism for a while, so Leroy Kincaide’s British take on the familiar genre, released via Samuel Goldwyn in the US, seemed worth a shot; the trailer features most of the staples, and several elements seem to be lifted directly from 1973’s The Exorcist. It’s a crisply shot film to […]
1. “The Witcher” Season 2 (available December 17) Why Should I Watch? It’s been two years since Henry Cavill cast his spell on the world, and the titular Witcher’s long-awaited return to Netflix is finally upon us. I’m going to be honest: I do not remember much about this show. Twenty-four months — especially these…
7 New Netflix Shows in December and the Best Reasons to Watch
The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics have announced their nominees for the best of 2021! The winners will be announced tomorrow so that means you have exactly one day to see all the nominees. GET TO IT! Best Film Belfast The Green Knight The Power of the Dog tick, tick…BOOM! West Side Story Best Director […]
Here Are the 2021 Nominations of the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics!
After switching gears and directing the comic book movie Aquaman, Warner Bros. has allowed James Wan to return to his low-budget horror movie roots with Malignant, an absolutely gnarly little film that I’m honestly impressed the studio even agreed to put out. Wan, who has kickstarted no less […]
Before he was a filmmaker, Peter Bogdanovich was a critic and historian par excellence. Coming of age as the first wave of Hollywood filmmakers were being put out to pasture, Bogdanovich sat at the feet of the men who made the movies and fell in love. Among those titans he admired, Buster Keaton stood tall, […]
THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION
Pig tells a compelling story in a unique way, focusing more on the quiet moments to explore tragedy and grief without hitting us over the head with what it wants to say. Is it worthy of your next watch? Let’s find out…
Spoiler-Free Review of “Pig” on Hulu: Unique and Effective Storytelling
I wasn’t old enough to beat the 18 certificate back in 1986, and it’s been a long, long wait for me to finally catch up on Ruthless People, 35 years to be exact. Directed by the Airplane team of David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, and written by Dale Launer, it’s never been remade […]
Here’s some random waffle from your friendly movie blog host Mikey Wolfman and a review, of sorts, for Rebel Without a Cause. I do hope you are sitting down, not because the length of the upcoming ramblings but for the shock horror factor that this here “movie fan” had never seen it! Insert blood curdling […]
Rebel Without a Cause (1955) Confession, Preconception And My Punishment.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) Yep, that’s the fantastically inspired title! And the first teaser trailer has appeared. Is anyone interested beyond the fan boys who will lap up anything they are given? This really does seem like money-grubbing. But we may be pleasantly surprised. After all, the 2018 Halloween reboot was ok with caveats. Pity […]
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (2022) Preview with first teaser trailer
The news doesn’t stop, no matter what’s going on behind the scenes. You either keep up or get left behind. In this case, however, it’s not so much about keeping up. It’s about recapping a terrible, terrible year. Well, enough of the events contained within it. Time will tell if these storyline approaches will […]
Happy Days Are Here Again for “The Morning Show”
The National Board of Review just announced their picks for the best of 2021 and, while many thought they might go with West Side Story or The Power of the Dog, the NBR instead announced that their pick for Best Picture was Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza! In fact, Power of the Dog went curiously […]
The National Board of Review Names Licorice Pizza The Best of 2021
Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro’s take on “Nightmare Alley,” a noirish carny novel first adapted for a Tyrone Power film in 1947, is a pitiless vision of an underworld of grifters and tent-show hustlers. Stunningly-detailed, with an A-list cast up and down the line, it’s a gorgeous and gloomy dip into the dark side, immersive […]
Movie Review: Del Toro remakes a dark classic,”Nightmare Alley”
Dobromir Dymecki, Agnieszka Zulewska Ruben Östlund `s “Force Majeure” was one of the first films that showed us the true image of our selfishness. Nothing comes before our needs. What we want, what we should do or what should be done to us is the highest priority for us. Therefore, […]
Film Review: “Silent Land” (2021)
Well to say this film went into the unexpected might not quite sum up completely as writers Joe Barton and Michael Pearce, whom directs as well, take us on a road trip journey of science fiction – adding in a very personal side to the lead character, that at first is just thought of as […]
REVIEW: “ENCOUNTER” (2021) Amazon Films
From visionary filmmaker Lana Wachowski comes “The Matrix Resurrections,” the long-awaited fourth film in the groundbreaking franchise that redefined a genre. The new film reunites original stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss in the iconic roles they made famous, Neo and Trinity. The film also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (the “Aquaman” […]
Trailer: The Matrix Resurrections – Déjà Vu
Peter Medak’s blistering neo-noir was not what I was looking for when I saw it on a late-night cinema screening at my local flea-pit back in 1993; it might have been tough and violent, but the story was also the absolute opposite of what I was hoping to see as a young man. Rather than […]
Dennis Hopper’s 1980 film, released by the BFI for this special, restored two-disc reissue, is a genuine one-off; a dark family drama that few have seen, and there’s a reason for that. This is the darkest of films, as befits Hopper’s reputation as a provocateur; he boarded this project and retooled it as a follow-up […]
One common recurrence you see on Twitter is people being shocked to learn that Wes Anderson was born and raised in Houston, Texas. This, no doubt, is because of the very European aesthetic that he conjures in his films, while this has certainly become more pronounced with his more recent films like The Grand Budapest […]
The French Dispatch (2021), A Love-Letter to Journalism