Review: “The Mule”

2.5 out of 5 stars. Clint Eastwood is one of the most prolific and talented filmmakers out there, but he, like anyone else, has his fair share of hits and misses. “The Mule,” Eastwood’s latest directorial effort as well as the first film he’s acted in since 2012, lands somewhere in the middle. Based on […]

Top 10 Movies of 2018

The end of the year is always hard for me, as it comes time to narrow down the 70 or so new films I watched this year into a list that reflects the ten best. 2018 didn’t come with as many films that I loved or personally connected with as past years have, but the […]

Review: “Mary Queen of Scots”

2.5 out of 5 stars In “Mary Queen of Scots,” women rule. It’s the year 1561, and Elizabeth I (played by Margot Robbie) is the Queen of England. Her first cousin Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) returns to Scotland and reclaims her throne after the death of her husband, the King of France. They both have […]

Review: “Vice”

2.5 out of 5 stars. Dick Cheney is widely considered the most powerful Vice President of all time. But he had a lengthy political career prior to becoming VP to President George W. Bush in 2000 that shaped his ideals as he rose through the ranks of Washington. But according to “Vice,” a partly biographical, […]

Review: “Aquaman”

3.5 out of 5 stars. We all know that Warner Brothers’ DC cinematic universe hasn’t been all that successful thus far, and that the vast majority of the films in the series have had both visually and thematically dark tones. So it was an interesting choice for the studio to go with Aquaman—traditionally a very […]

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 […]