A request arrived to review this documentary about the current polio crisis in Pakistan. First thought: what a lousy time for Lickona to take vacation. The disease was almost under control until the Taliban voiced opposition and, in 2012, placed a ban on vaccinations, effectively turning a campaign to fend …
Well, at least they got the biblical proportions right: the massive Egyptian monument industry, the vast peoples and vaster landscapes, and most importantly, the God-sized plagues and waves. Otherwise, Ridley Scott's take on the great contest between Moses and Pharoah is underwhelming and ill-conceived. First, the underwhelming: nearly everyone — …
For a little while at the outset, you may find reason to smile: Wesley Snipes is very nearly charming as a newly sprung compatriot for senior super-soldier Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone, in frequent and extended closeup). When fellow Expendable Dolph Lundgren asks what he was in for, Snipes deadpans, "Tax …
Lloyd Handwerker was but a pup with a VHS camcorder when he began work three decades ago on what would eventually become this garnished-with-all-the-trimmings documentary history of his family’s illustrious hot dog empire. “Angels covered me up” is the way grandpa Nathan Handwerker described his perilous odyssey from Eastern Europe …
"We have a choice about how to tell sad stories," says 17-year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley, adorable) at the outset. There is the Hollywood way to do it, of course. But, she says, "this is the truth. Sorry." She's not actually sorry, and notice is hereby served: this is …
Director and co-writer Jason Banker's story of post-rape trauma is deeply unpleasant (you were expecting maybe a cheerful story, one in which Chekhov's gun somehow doesn't go off?), but thoughtfully, creatively so. Amy (co-writer Amy Everson) has always been crafty, but recent events have led her to lovingly fashion alarming …
Family film from Germany about a group of schoolchildren who escapr from kindergarten to free their grandparents from the old folks home.
Irene (Margherita Buy) works for a company that evaluates luxury hotels. This means that you will see many luxury hotels over the course of the film, and they are indeed luxurious. Personal butlers, spa treatments, motorized curtains, palatial bathrooms, scented sheets — Irene sees all and judges all. (You almost …
As seen through directors’ Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga ’Scope frames, Ane (Nagore Aranburu) is but an insignificant sparrow of a construction-site manager observed in overhead shots (her back to the camera) or surfacing, if only for a moment, through the crook in a subway-rider’s arm. Why Ane is …
Filmed performance of comedian Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias.
Writer-director Yuriy Bykov’s story about a man who tries to do a good deed and bucks the system in the process. It's Russia — how do you suppose things will work out? Subtitled.
An ominous “controlled avalanche” at a Swiss resort sparks a tidal wave of emotion when Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) discovers her work-addicted husband, Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke), places his own safety, and that of his smartphone, ahead of their two kids. It’s a conspicuous moment of indecision that plunges their marriage …
Girls in the big city, not quite living the life. Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers bring you the story of two unheroic women (Bridey Elliott, Clare McNulty) attempting an unheroic trip to a decidedly unheroic beach at the end of the summer.