Tepid romantic comedy, in the New York style. It wants to take up residence in a certain situation, but doesn't want to do the construction work necessary to put it there. The desired situation is a middle-aged Manhattan psychoanalyst becoming amorously obsessed with a twenty-ish patient, and risking everything for …
When was the last time the sight of two men kissing on screen wasn’t greeted with either uncomfortable laughter from the audience or caterwauling rumbles of disapproval? The curtain-lowering same-sex kiss that closes Love, Simon, will leave viewers cheering. “I’m just like you,” are the first words closeted high schooler …
Subheaded "A Romantic Musical Comedy." Under the guidance of Kenneth Branagh (whose air of authority deflates completely whenever Alicia Silverstone is permitted to open her mouth), this Shakespeare production has been updated to 1939, then punctuated with newly written newsreel plot summaries as well as with song-and-dance numbers -- not …
Where do I begin? “Death Story,” as it came to be called, was the film that introduced Hollywood’s concept of a “set-’em up-to-watch-’em-die” picture to my then-15-year-old brain. The script originally called for the movie to open with the doctor bluntly informing Oliver (Ryan O’Neal) that his young bride Jenny …
With John Cassavetes, it is often easier to like the man than his movies; and it is easier in this case to like his movie because the man himself is in it. He has great screen presence, so called, with a stance that suggests his shoes have been nailed to …
Four sets of lovers and almost-lovers encounter unexpected obstacles in their relationships on the eve of Valentine's Day. A sex-obsessed food delivery man begins to lust after his new roommate, a postgraduate student from Australia. Directed by Mak Ho-Bon, starring Anson Kong and Karena Ng.
No you won’t. From Jessie Nelson, the man who brought us Stepmom, I Am Sam, and Fred Claus...need I go on? Staler than year-old rum cake and louder than June Squbb’s holiday sweater, Hollywood yet again ushers in the Christmas season with a dysfunctional family racing to get it together …
The con man and the college girl: a mad-love story of masochism and self-destruction and "inconsistent" characters. Flamboyantly played by Adrien Brody (especially alongside the frugality of his partner in crime, Jon Seda) and gamely by Charlotte Ayanna. Directed by Peter Sehr.
Liam Neeson narrates this "journey through the new era of human evolution, where our hearts and minds are inspired by the wonders of nature."
A group of diverse gays, including a set of Jekyll-and-Hyde twins, convene throughout one summer -- Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day (Act One, Act Two, Act Three) -- in a remote lakeside house such as Chekhov might have coveted, to air their thoughts and feelings ("People are …
This week’s dollop of Oscar-bait is a well intentioned account of the marriage and subsequent incarceration of an interracial couple in 1958 that led to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn state laws prohibiting mixed marriage. With the fact-based outcome predetermined, it’s up to the storyteller to make the journey …
Richard and Mildred Loving married in Virginia in 1958. Because the marriage was interracial, it was illegal. The Lovings took their case to court. Some nine years later, the Supreme Court got involved. This is that story.
The curious death of troubled painter Vincent Van Gogh (what sort of person commits suicide by shooting themselves in the stomach and then walking into town?) gets investigated — reluctantly at first, but with mounting interest and suspicion — by the son of the postman who used to handle his …