An unplanned pregnancy in her youth, along with the decision to give the baby up for adoption, continues to haunt Maya (Jennifer Lopez). For this we go to a romcom? What happened to the cute setup? Comic-relief Joan (Leah Remini) gooses Maya’s resume and social media profile so that her …
Val (Regina Casé) has spent a lifetime looking after children that aren’t hers. The habitual live-in housekeeper who’s “almost like family” asks the bosses to put a roof over the head of her estranged daughter Jéssica’s (Camila Márdila) during the time it will take the young woman to pass a …
It’s no secret that Secret in Their Eyes is an English-language remake of 2010’s Best Foreign Film Oscar of the same name. Like it’s namesake, Secret relies on a series of intricate flashbacks, the narrative constantly, often confusingly jumping between 2002 and 2015 with 9/11 an obvious substitute for Argentina’s …
It’s 1959, and while at the park with her son, Maja (Noomi Rapace) notices what appears to be a new addition to the neighborhood: the Nazi (Joel Kinnemann) who killed her sister and left her for dead. A hammer to the head and a ride in the trunk lead to …
I was working the night watch out of North Park’s long-defunct Citizen’s Video when The Secret first revealed itself to me. My curiosity was piqued, but it took months before I finally got it. Not “got it” in the sense of understanding. (What do you take me for?) Rather, “got …
Roberto (Marco D’Amore), owner of the security company that has rigged Forte dei Marmi with enough cameras to power a studio, likens the raked sand on the private beaches and overly-orchestrated facade to a picture postcard. Paradise is hardly a setting conducive to crime, but this is a winter tale …
The cuteness doesn’t stop at the title. An asteroid set to collide with earth brings together a freshly-dumped insurance salesman (Steve Carell), a man whose television beams nothing but exposition and clumsy non-sequiturs, and a free-spirited neighbor (Keira Knightley). Lorene Scafaria, a screenwriter (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) making her …
Think Heathers without the bite. The five factions in charge of the various vices at the prestigious Haldwell School gather ‘round a meeting table — complete with artfully mismatched chairs — located in the middle of a forest glade. How silly. Selah (Lovie Simone) remains under suspicion for the manner …
Victor Martin (Shatner) plans to live out his golden years with the love of his life, a vintage silver Porsche. The retired, never married NASA test pilot calls Palm Springs home, and as submitted, it’s a sleepy desert resort community where everybody knows everybody. (Even if it’s not true, in …
A dog gone astray in an American family adventure film generally portends a running time consumed by the pup’s struggle to make its way back home. Not Sergeant Pepper! He’s thrilled to be rid of the two adult children of his dearly departed master, who bequeathed a fortune to his …
A deserted lot on the outskirts of town may seem an odd place to begin a sinister character study, but it is here —alone and in mid-downpour — where door-to-door salesman Franck Poupart (Patrick Dewaere, the apotheosis of Thompson’s durable neurotic crumblers) outlines the day’s events through shadow-boxing. Like all …
Did you hear the one about the 38-year-old virgin in the iron lung who hired a sex surrogate to take the cherry off the sundae? The trailer unspooled like a checklist of everything culpable in American cinema: a cute, fact-based, feel-good “disease of the week” romcom equipped with an endless …
Back in the day, New York’s 75th Precinct was the deadliest cop house in the land. These particularly “true blue” boys in blue were more dangerous than the scum they were hired to serve and protect, so dirty they made Harry Callahan look clean. When asked if he was a …
Dad’s losing his battle with cancer, mom can’t pull herself to pieces, the school bully demands this week’s homework assignment, and gay uncle’s return home after a 6 year absence is wreaking havoc on homophobic gramps. Is it any wonder 11-year-old Eli McAllister’s (Parental Guidance's Joshua Rush) last hope for …