Another winner from screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (writer of not only the first “Sicario” but the best film of 2016 “Hell or High Water,” and writer-director of last year’s great “Wind River”) who at this point seems to do no wrong. While critics have been surprisingly harsh on this worthy sequel, fans will likely enjoy it–and… Read More »
“The Mr. Rogers Documentary” might’ve been a better–albeit more artless–title for this stirring, roundly-acclaimed film since that’s pretty much how I have to describe it to people. [Just try telling people you’ve seen “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and after a few seconds of taking in their confusion, you’ll see the awareness flood onto their… Read More »
Three films that pretty much have nothing in common except they’re all about different men assembling a team for an unusual project–whether it’s making a CD with your daughter, playing the same game of tag for thirty years, or stealing rare books from a college campus… Hearts Beat Loud…Nick Offerman plays an ex-musician and struggling… Read More »
Two great documentaries that most political junkies will probably love. Although the subject matter is fairly different (for political docs), there are some overlaps in that both are about honorable civil servants trying–and mostly failing–to do the right thing in the face of a rising wave of political ignorance and hostility. The Final Year…This documentary… Read More »
Four films that don’t really have a lot in common except that they feature women in prominent roles and that I don’t really love or loathe any of them enough to want to write a several-paragraph full review… The Incredibles 2…Really, truly, completely nowhere near as good as the original. I’ve probably watched the first… Read More »
Sci-Fi fans have no shortage of options these days, so you might have to be pretty hard up to see these mostly so-so offerings. We’ll move from worst to first… Hotel Artemis…A great example of a movie that shouldn’t exist. This movie isn’t clever, it isn’t original, it isn’t particularly well-constructed nor well-directed nor well-written,… Read More »
HBO has had two TV movies deal with the difficult subject of child sexual abuse but in very different ways. “The Tale” is more experimental (and much more personal), zeroing in on the abused in a shockingly intimate way, while “Paterno” takes a broader, docu-drama approach to covering the after-effects of abuse and the real… Read More »
AL gives his pick for the worst Pixar film ever made, a brief defense of the misunderstood “Cars 2” (the rare bumpkin-empowerment movie), and talks about why Pixar should stop making so many sequels.
On the 20th Anniversary of “The Truman Show,” I explain why it’s one of the best movies of the 90’s and one of my personal favorites of all time. A powerful religious allegory, a razor-sharp media satire, and a drama for the ages all wrapped into one movie; it’s the best film ever made that… Read More »
In the wake of “Solo”‘s flop, AL revisits the despised “Phantom Menace” and makes the case that it’s actually not the WORST “Star Wars” movie. He talks about the prequel trilogy’s real arc (the seductive lure of fascism) and ranks all the Star Wars movies.