Review: “Wake Up Dead Man”

It would be so easy to make every entry in the Knives Out series a cookie cutter whodunit, coasting by on the charms of lead Daniel Craig and the increasingly starry revolving door of famous faces who populate the rest of the cast. It’s a credit to series creator, writer and director Rian Johnson, however, […]

Venice 2025: “Frankenstein” (2025)

Rarely does anyone, when discussing Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, refer to it by its unabbreviated title: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan sent to Earth early in its creation to help humanity. But he gives them fire, a tool that begets knowledge, more civilized technology— and destruction. His defiance […]

Review: “Emilia Pérez”

Jacques Audiard has been directing movies for 30 years, often playing with genre— from the crime picture A Prophet to the romantic drama Rust and Bone to the western The Sisters Brothers— but I wish I could be more impressed by the supreme confidence with which he pulls off his most audacious feature to date, […]

Review: “Maestro”

“Great gowns, beautiful gowns.” The comment thrown by Aretha Franklin in reference to Taylor Swift in a 2014 interview that has often been read as god-tier shade is the first reaction that popped into my head as the credits rolled on Bradley Cooper’s sophomore feature, Maestro. Cooper’s portrait of legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein […]

Review: “May December”

Most cinematic retellings of true stories traffic in impersonation. And we, as a culture, reward that. Praise isn’t necessarily heaped on an actor for the soulfulness and honesty of their performance, but for how closely they arrive at an approximation of what we perceive to be real. Think about how so many of the most […]

Review: “The Killer”

“Stick to the plan.” That’s the mantra that the titular assassin of The Killer, played by Michael Fassbender, repeats in his head as he goes about his job, constantly rationalizing the need for a clinical attitude and lack of empathy every time he’s faced with a situation that challenges his inhumanity. The same sentence could […]

Review: “Blonde”

Kim Kardashian stirred up controversy for the gown she chose to wear to the Met Gala earlier this year, although not because of the look itself. The buzz came, rather, courtesy of the gown’s origins: it was the same nude-colored, beaded dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in 1962, when she famously sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. […]

TIFF Review: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Toronto International Film Festival Special Presentations World Premiere From the dreary coziness of autumn in New England to the sun-dappled shores of a Grecian island, writer and director Rian Johnson takes detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to the other side of the world on a new case in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.” But […]

Streaming Movie Reviews

Today I’m recapping some of the many movies that were released in March that you can watch on streaming services right now, among them the Adrian Lyne/Ben Affleck/Ana de Armas erotic thriller “Deep Water,” which finally found a home on Hulu after it was removed from the release calendar at the end of last year, […]

Streaming Movie Reviews

I’m back today with some short reviews of movies that have been released on streaming services so far this month. February is the peak time for romantic comedies, and I’ve got two of them here, as well as a YA drama, a reboot of a horror classic, and a new Soderbergh thriller. Read more on […]