August Wilson’s play Fences is a timeless – and therefore timely – story about an African American man dealing with race relations, marriage, fatherhood and a past that was never quite what he wanted it to be.
Category: Movie Reviews
Lion – A Lost Boy Finds Home… Twice!
The story of Saroo Brierley is one of epic proportions to the point that if it were fiction it might be hard to believe. How an Indian child of five could fall asleep on a decommissioned train in Ganesh Talai in the Khandwr Province of India and wind up in Calcutta, in Bengali Province and […]
Sing Sings!
The latest animated tale from Illumination is a ‘let’s put on a show’ story that weaves over 75 songs – most well-known – into the story of Buster Moon’s last gasp attempt to save his run down theater. With a sparkling voice cast (everyone performs their characters’ songs) and a heaping helping of wit and […]
Assassin’s Creed Is Awful!
Callum Lynch wakes up the morning after his execution to discover he’s the essential part of a plan to travel back in through – through an ancestor’s memories – to locate the Apple of Eden for the contemporary Templars. In doing so, he learns that that ancestor was an assassin, tasked with keeping the Apple […]
Miss Peregrine Soars, but in a Jumbled Flightpath
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the adaptation of the popular young adult novel by Ransom Riggs which chronicles the tales of people, particularly youngsters, with extraordinary abilities. Such gifts might include the ability to control air, water, time, or even reanimate the dead or lifeless. When Jake (Asa Butterfield) discovers this hidden world […]
Pretty People, Pretty Pictures – Passengers!
Passengers is a lovely film if all you’re looking for is pretty pictures of pretty people on a beautiful starship. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt find themselves awakened from suspended animation thirty years into a 120-year voyage from Earth to a new colony on Homestead II. Their meeting isn’t particularly cute – it’s kind of […]
Manchester By The Sea Is a Searing Tale of Grief!
Lee Chandler is a quietly surly misanthrope who works as the handyman/building manager of four apartment blocks in Boston when his brother’s death brings him home to Manchester. His brother’s will names him guardian of son Patrick.
Rogue One Is a First Rate Star Wars Story!
Story or episode, Rogue One sits squarely behind Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as one of the best Star Wars movies. It’s that simple. The story of how Princess Leia came to be in possession of the plans to the Death Star, Rogue One is Star Wars via The Dirty Dozen, Kelly’s Heroes […]
Collateral Beauty – I Hated This Movie!
Collateral Beauty is a story about grief, recovery and redemption – themes also found in Kenneth Lonergan’s brilliant Manchester By Sea. It angered me because it appeared to be an entirely different movie than the one suggested by the trailers – and by being a remarkably treacly film on its own merits.
Solace: Psychic vs. Psychic!
Homicide detectives Joe Merriwether and Katherine Cowles have a tough case – three murders that are precise, clean and entirely evidence free – so Joe asks his old friend, Dr. John Clancy, to help. John has been in seclusion since his daughter died of leukemia and is less than thrilled to be asked back – […]
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Michelle is Meh. Spoiler Free Review!
It’s here, finally here. A new Star Wars movie! Yey? What I feared would happen has come to pass – Star Wars no longer feels special. A new Star Wars film every year for the next 5 years, takes away the mystique and awe the franchise has maintained for the last 30 years. What makes […]