Movie Reviews

There’s a brilliant magic to the quietly powerful courtroom drama The Collini Case (original German title: Der Fall Collini) in its storytelling. All of it stems from an elderly brooding man in police custody, Fabrizio Collini (Franco Nero) – shown in the prologue to have killed wealthy German industrialist Hans Meyer (Manfred Zapatka) – and […]

Between John Hawkes’ timid mess of a father and Logan Lerman’s recently-imprisoned son, there’s a lot of awkward silence highlighting a world of difference. Frank Fogle, a man scared of his own shadow, and Sean, who won’t be cowed by anything, are about to embark on an intercontinental voyage which might prove blood is truly […]

The High Note goes down as smooth as you’d expect, like a comforting mug of hot chocolate. It’s sweet, frothy, and relatively harmless, with little edge to cause any unease or sour aftertastes. With our stomachs full of similar male-fronted films, a female perspective – from both in front of and behind the camera – […]

The (not pejoratively) dry, black-humored Lucky Grandma is quite a charmer, thanks largely to veteran actor Tsai Chin, whose illustrious career has spanned six decades. Once a Bond Girl in You Only Live Twice (and coming back for 2006’s Casino Royale, too!), Lucky Grandma brings her back to the action arena… sort of. Don’t be […]

Why do we, as a culture, indulge the self-important need to know so much about the wealthy and the powerful? Do we really respect them for “being just like us” when the trash behind their carefully-curated public image is revealed? Are we attracted to the money, the lifestyles, the cars, the houses, the glitz and […]

NOTE: This film lives and dies by its twists and surprises. In order to keep things enjoyable, I refuse to print spoilers for this one, so please forgive the vagueness. This is a first for me: a murdering Satanic cult movie! Of course, there’s way more to We Summon the Darkness than it being beholden […]