Beethoven should send a bill
The Milky Way inspires a look at what gives and what takes
Garrett Harris 9 p.m., July 23
Big Screen Movie Reviews
Pictures at a (Movie) Exposition
Visuals are the story in this week’s new movie releases, including Dunkirk and Lady Macbeth
Director Christopher Nolan wants to remind folks why they go to movie theaters — instead of, you know, watching a movie on a telephone. In this critic’s humble opinion, he succeeds admirably in that effort ...
Where to see Dunkirk in 70mm
Pick your battle station wisely
When a studio goes to the effort of setting up an IMAX screening for the press, consider me first in line. It’s a luxurious perk and one that generally comes back to reward its backers ...
Lady Macbeth’s director on morality, animals, and his star Florence Pugh
Smart about evil: matrimony, misery, murder
William Oldroyd’s elegantly executed debut feature Lady Macbeth may prove to be the sort of quiet breakout for star Florence Pugh that Martha Marcy May Marlene was for Elizabeth Olsen (as opposed to the more ...
Will the monkeys do good business?
This week’s releases include War for the Planet of the Apes and not much else
Like Scott Marks, the other film critic here at the Reader, I thought the first two films of the rebooted Planet of the Apes series were excellent. Which is why I was so saddened to ...
The original Rotten Tomato
B.J. wouldn’t allow anyone to make it out the front door without asking, “How many stars?”
For every knowledgeably staffed Kensington Video, Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee, Facets Multimedia, or any number of cutting-edge video rental stores that once gave lonely cinephiles a place to go and someone to talk to, there ...
A bleat from a critical scapegoat
Studios would be deeply foolish to make big-budget movies primarily for the domestic market.
Pity the critic. Once, he bestrode the gulf between artist and audience like a colossus (no, not the big metal guy from Deadpool), raising up and casting down the creators, guiding and shaping a lively ...
Damn hurty Apes
We now believe a motion-capture monkey thinks, feels, reasons, and eventually speaks
The 20th Century Fox fanfare (with CinemaScope addendum) that opened War for the Planet of the Apes was performed on jungle drums and didgeridoo. Sometimes a film earns points even before the opening credits hit ...
Reader critics go soft for summer?
Starry-eyed for this week’s new releases, including Spider-Man: Homecoming and The Journey
“No Aunt May, no Spider-Man,” says my brother, and I know what he means. Without that frail and innocent soul that quietly cries out for protection and sacrifice on its behalf, Spider-Man loses a chunk ...
Director Nick Hamm on his Journey
The road less troubled?
The historical understructure of Nick Hamm’s The Journey came as news to me. Your humble correspondent Mr. Ugly American must have been at the movies the week Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) ...
B movies
Plenty of second-letter fare in this week’s new movie releases, including The Bad Batch and The Beguiled
I’m of the opinion that “B movie” stopped having much useful meaning some time ago, certainly by the time the Transformers series became the box-office juggernaut that it is today — or was, until its ...
No refund on free passes?
How about cash back if you don't like the picture?
The sun was shining, the climate genial, and a Terence Davies picture that deserved a fate better than a single-screen living room playing at the Digital Gym. Time to go to the movies. Talk about ...
A warm Kaiser role from Christopher Plummer
Knew more about Wilhelm II than the movie reveals
The last time San Diegans saw Christopher Plummer perform was as fictional Nazi hunter Zev Guttman in Atom Egoyan's Remember. This time around he plays an exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II in The Exception which opens ...
Onscreen echoes
This week’s new movie releases, including The Book of Henry and All Eyez On Me, sound oddly familiar
47 Meters Down has girls and sharks, All Eyez on Me has rappers and racist cops, Beatriz at Dinner has a high-tension, high-end dinner party, The Book of Henry has boys and brutality and bullets, ...
Beatriz at Dinner makes the history books
Salma Hayek’s Beatriz has the worst haircut of the actress’s career
I’m not alone in my observation that Beatriz at Dinner will make the history books as the first narrative feature released since Trump took office that takes direct aim at the billionaire-game-show-host-turned-POTUS. It also has ...
Beatriz at Dinner is served
Director Miguel Arteta feasts on Salma Hayek
Sometimes the first impression of an artist whose work one will later grow fond of drops anchor in the unlikeliest of places. Such was the case of Miguel Arteta, whose latest, Beatriz at Dinner, opens ...
