Review: “Mary Poppins Returns”

3.5 out of 5 stars. Walt Disney’s 1964 film “Mary Poppins” is hugely beloved and widely regarded as the studio’s greatest live-action movie. So despite the fact that author P.L. Travers wrote multiple stories about the magical nanny, it’s still a tall order for Disney to make a sequel to the classic film over 50 […]

Review: “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”

5 out of 5 stars. I never thought I’d describe a Spider-Man movie as truly refreshing—Sony’s big live-action superhero franchise has been rebooted so many times in recent years it’s become a joke in and of itself. But refreshing, as well as “innovative” and “original,” are exactly the words to describe “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” […]

Review: “The Favourite”

3.5 out of 5 stars. Everything about “The Favourite” defies expectations, which really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise for a film from Yorgos Lanthimos, the director behind such bizarre works as 2015’s “The Lobster” and 2017’s “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” It looks like a pretty period piece set in the royal […]

Review: “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

4.5 out of 5 stars. A great bookstore is heaven to readers. I’m not talking about the retail chains, by the small, local shops that have been around for years and feel old and lived in, that are operated and visited by those with a real passion for the written word. No film seems to […]

Review: “Creed II”

4.5 out of 5 stars. One of the things that made “Creed” such a success is that it was a simple but heartfelt underdog story, not unlike the original “Rocky” film that kicked off the franchise. “Creed II” takes a slightly different approach, in that Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), the son of boxer Apollo […]

Review: “Widows”

2.5 out of 5 stars. “Widows” is a film that has everything going for it. It’s directed by Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) with a screenplay co-written by McQueen and “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn. It has a stellar ensemble cast, including the likes of Viola Davis, Liam Neeson, Daniel Kaluuya, Michelle Rodriguez, and […]

Review: “Ralph Breaks The Internet”

3 out of 5 stars. The current state of technology and the internet—especially how so many people live their lives online through social media—is endless fodder for satire. The sequel to Disney’s 2012 animated hit “Wreck-It Ralph” trades in the video game nostalgia of its predecessor for a look at the internet as it is […]

Review: “The Girl in the Spider’s Web”

2 out of 5 stars. “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” looks and feels like it has all the hallmarks of a good spy thriller. But while it draws heavily on those elements, including cool tech, high speed chases, shoot-outs, and a clever heroine, it falls to make a human connection between its characters and, in […]

Review: “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”

1.5 out of 5 stars. Less than an hour into “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” I took a second to count how many different storylines the film was dividing time between. At that point I came up with five, with at least another one or two popping up later in the movie. The fragmented […]

Review: “If Beale Street Could Talk”

4.5 out of 5 stars. With his 2016 film “Moonlight,” writer and director Barry Jenkins infused a modern love story with a sense of intimacy so intense that it seems to have become a part of his directorial style. His new film “If Beale Street Could Talk,” his first movie since that Best Picture Oscar […]