Review: “Jackie”

4.5 out of 5 stars. “Jackie” concludes with the finale of the musical “Camelot” playing over the action; as Jackie states in the film, the cast album was a favorite of her husband’s, President John F. Kennedy, comparing his brief time in office prior to his assassination to that mystical land. While that comment has […]

Review: “Fences”

4 out of 5 stars. Fences can be built to keep things in; they can also be built to keep things out. While there is a literal fence being constructed by Denzel Washington’s character Troy throughout the movie “Fences,” it is also symbolic of his and Viola Davis’ character Rose’s relationship to each other, and […]

Review: “Passengers” (with spoilers!)

The following review contains spoilers for “Passengers.” 2 out of 5 stars. The ads for “Passengers” bill it as escapist sci-fi entertainment. Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence wake up from early hibernation on a spaceship, and something goes wrong. The thing is, that “something wrong” that the marketing alludes to isn’t what you think, […]

Review: “Assassin’s Creed”

2 out of 5 stars. Film adaptations of video games have never had a good track record. So to say that “Assassin’s Creed” is the best game-to-film adaptation in a long time may not exactly be a compliment. In placing plot over action, the film takes what is best about the games and turns it […]

Review: “La La Land”

4.5 out of 5 stars. “La La Land” opens with a long tracking shot, the camera moving along bumper-to-bumper traffic on a Los Angeles freeway, a cacophony of sounds and different music emanating from each vehicle—a fairly typical scene, until, one by one, people leap out of their cars, jumping on top of them and […]

Review: “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (with spoilers)

WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for “Rogue One.” Read at your own risk. 4 out of 5 stars. With “The Force Awakens,” the first new installment of the “Star Wars” series since 2005 and the first since the Walt Disney Company acquired the franchise, the goal was to draw audiences back into that galaxy […]

Review: “Loving”

4 out of 5 stars. Loving was their name, and they were persecuted for doing the exact same thing. In “Loving,” writer/director Jeff Nichols tells the true story of the landmark 1967 court case Loving v. Virginia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for states to prohibit interracial marriage. It’s a […]

Review: “Moana”

4.5 out of 5 stars. Walt Disney Feature Animation has had a remarkable past several years, turning out amazing film after amazing film, from the cultural phenomenon “Frozen” to the record-breaking hit of this spring, “Zootopia.” But even among such illustrious titles, “Moana” may be the studio’s crowning achievement of this era. “Moana,” which is […]

Review: “The Edge of Seventeen”

4.5 out of 5 stars. Awkward people and fans of teen comedies, rejoice. Writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen” is a wonderful medley of everything that’s great about the John Hughes teen films of the eighties, and the quirky indie comedies of the last decade, a la Juno—in fact, this movie […]

Review: “Moonlight”

5 out of 5 stars. “Moonlight” is one of those films that it’s hard to believe even exists– it tells a type of story with a type of character that hasn’t been done before, and does so in an exceedingly heartfelt and poetic way that earns it the title of one of the year’s best […]