At the start of Downton Abbey: A New Era we are given a quick recap of what’s what and who’s who by actor Kevin Doyle (who plays the bumbling Moseley), reminding us what the heck has gone on most recently with our favorite characters from the beloved Masterpiece Theater series. This is extremely helpful as …
Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) is just trying to do her taxes. Swamped in handwritten receipts for her small business–a struggling laundromat that she runs with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan)–Evelyn finds herself once again across the desk from Deirdre, a stern IRS tax auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis). She can’t help it if her mind wanders… …
Romcoms are a special sort of comfort food, like a big bowl of caramel popcorn, a fuzzy blanket, and soft pants. The setup is totally formulaic: You know that as soon as you meet the leads, that they will be destined to get together by the end of the film. So it usually depends on …
Going into the theater to see a press screening of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I had the sudden, very-late-in-the-game realization that I have never actually seen the original beloved 1984 comedy classic. Heck, I was even there at the time, and was the ripe age for falling under its ghostly spell! All my classmates seemed to have …
With a name like Bingo Hell, you may not expect a clever allegory of gentrification and the fading luster of the American Dream. But this campy horror-comedy delivers its message of community sticking together, contrasting glaring flashy bingo parlor lights with the cozy glow of your well-worn neighborhood hair salon. Lupita (Adriana Barraza) is the …
It takes no leap of the imagination to picture Hollywood remaking this film with Liam Neeson as the star. After all, this crime thriller/drama (with just enough twisted humor to make you laugh) is really just a Danish take on a tired, familiar trope. A deployed, weathered soldier receives the worst call from home: His …
Show me a horse movie that didn’t make me cry. Black Beauty made me openly sob. The triumph of Seabiscuit? Don’t even get me started. Heck, my throat starts to catch just even talking about Carol Ballard’s lovely classic The Black Stallion. Did Dream Horse make me cry? Well, of course it did. Of. Course. …
I’m sure it’s unintentional that the limbo the characters in this film face ironically mirrors that limbo that we all feel having been stuck at home for over a year due to the pandemic. It is certainly unfair to compare a refugee’s stuck between two worlds existence to someone sitting all day, every day in …
Rosemary (Emily Blunt) has loved neighbor farm boy Anthony (Jamie Dornan) ever since they were wee children in the Irish countryside. But a misunderstood love rivalry with another girl has led them to grow up as grumpy single farmers with a symbolic fence between their land. Anthony’s dad (Christopher Walken, sporting an every-now-and-then Irish accent) …
Joel (Dylan O’Brien) was 17 when an asteroid smashed into Earth, causing various species to mutate and decimate most of the human race. His high school sweetheart, Aimee (Jessica Henwick), fled with her parents, his own parents died, and every expectation of a normal life went out the window. Years that would have been devoted …