On a bullfighting breeding farm in the backwoods of Mexico, the sons of rancheros tire of antagonizing one another and decide it would be more fun to pick on the girls. Meanwhile, on another part of the farm, the chronological age of the participants might increase the closer one gets …
A handbook on what can go terribly wrong when screenwriters direct. On the basis of one script (the dreary, Oscar-appointed The Imitation Game), Graham Moore was handed the keys to a soundstage where he transformed an original screenplay into the redheaded stepchild of a Fathom Event. From the opening montage …
Director Scott Cooper's long-awaited followup to Crazy Heart may make you wish the wait had been a little longer. He got his all-star cast, but forgot to come up with a logical screenplay (he shares writing credit with Brad Ingelsby). And apparently, he also got his camera stuck on Close …
An Afghanistan valley steeped in insurgency is the eponymous setting for this gallant portrait of a group of U.S. soldiers fighting in the face of certain defeat. Why the Kamdesh base came to be known as “Camp Custer” will soon become all too apparent. Scott Eastwood stars in this adaptation …
After a decade’s absence, Takeshi Kitano returns to the yakuza genre with this violent, blood-soaked Bad Guy vs. Worse Guy revenge tale of feuding crime organizations. Kitano stars as a ruthless mobster assigned the task of straightening out a rival gang. He does so with great precision and an overabundance …
I’m all for improving a bad movie, but why remake matters worse? A bloody stool joke gets things rolling. The mechanical whir of the elongating power recliner promised somatic comfort, while my dampened spirits prepared to be bored over again. Director Rob Greenberg’s first big-screen undertaking is being marketed as …
In writer-director Patrick Brice's The Overnight, a chance meeting in the park leads to a mini-orgy between two happily married couples trying to take stock of where they’re at with their spouses. Much of the romantic tension stems from always being clear about our host’s (Jason Schwartzman) penis size, if …
Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) loved when Ma Ma (Ruthie Ann Miles) would undrape her hand-painted scarf and use it, as one might a cinema screen, to enrapture her young daughter with the ancient legend of Chang’e, the goddess of the moon, and her odyssey to be reunited with her soul …
Husband and wife directing team Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan make their feature debut with this fly-on-the-wall, narration-free video diary that ostensibly documents the lives of four students — none of whom are interviewed — from the 2017 graduating class of Pahokee High School. (I say “ostensibly” because the surplus …
Oy, Bay! Michael Bay, the Butcher of Burbank, returns, this time with one pound of script in a 20 lb. casing and a refrigerated display case fit to bust with shoulder cut of Mark Wahlberg, prime rib of Anthony Mackie, and filet of Rock. In order to help underwrite their …
A little hocus pocus from the widow of a doctor’s first fatality in three years sets the stage for this outlandishly entertaining thriller. After surviving a car crash that claims the life of her fiancé, our young medico awakens to find herself happily married to her boss (and dead beau’s …
It would be one thing if Palmer (Justin Timberlake) were the type to drop Sam (Lance Nichols) at the nearest precinct house and let the police sort things out until wayward mother Shelly (Juno Temple) turned up. (Her Jean Kasem braid pulled tighter than a ship’s anchor, Shelly conveniently disappears …
Another Coppola, another troubled teen flick that begs audiences to ponder the lives of rich bored white rebels without a clue. Grandpa Francis and aunt Sofia had the good sense to rely on established best sellers for their first forays into the youth film market. Not so, Francis’ granddaughter Gia …
You know there’s trouble ahead when the pixels begin outnumbering the pixies. For the first 30 minutes of Joe Wright's (Anna Karenina) prequel to the J. M. Barrie classic, we follow Peter (Levi Miller) as he progresses from orphanage doorstep to flying pirate ship. Peter’s inevitable arrival at Neverland is …
The last few days before the San Diego Film Awards find all of the legitimate acts scheduled to appear snowbound and unavailable. (I love the implication that the canceled acts are somehow “legitimate,” while their San Diego counterparts are a bastard group of slothful, largely unemployed performers with free time …