Season Two of The Alienist (subtitled Angel of Darkness) focuses on a series of missing infants, snatched right from their own crib, or from their baby buggy in full daylight. Our trusty trio of sleuths, including independent woman detective Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning), newspaperman John Moore (Luke Evans), and “alienist” (aka psychiatrist) Laszlo Kreizler (Daniel …
What do you get when you throw a slew of famous faces into a comedic murder-mystery movie written and directed by Rian Johnson? The trailers and promotional pull quotes would have you believe it’s a zany, madcap whodunit – yay! Who doesn’t love a zany, madcap whodunit?! Problem is, what you see in those ads isn’t …
In addition to helming the film, Branagh stars as renowned detective Hercule Poirot, whose investigative skills are rivaled only by his OCD. Remaining very faithful to the source material, the 1930s-set story finds a weary Poirot – who’s eager for some time off – reluctantly hopping on the titular train for a three-day trek from …
As a single man with few responsibilities, Harry Hooperman is accustomed to living life on his own terms. He goes to work and plays his sax, but he can pop downstairs to his landlord’s apartment whenever he wants a hot meal and some motherly doting. This unencumbered existence comes to an abrupt end when his …
Merely an episode into The Tunnel, I was thinking there was very much a Scandinavian noir feeling to this British/French television series. My instinct was correct when I found out it was an adaptation of the acclaimed Danish/Swedish crime series The Bridge (Broen/Bron). Who knows, maybe there will one day be an American/Mexican adaptation called …
Set in Los Angeles in 1977, The Nice Guys finds private eye Holland March and hired heavy Jackson Healy crossing paths in search of a missing girl, Amelia (Margaret Qualley). They soon realize their shared purpose, and team up in spite of their rather distinct and sometimes conflicting personalities. As they delve deeper and deeper …
With the dim Arctic light, the ever-present snow, and the need to carry a gun outside at all times (polar bears!), the remote island-settlement of Fortitude is a place that takes, well, fortitude to live in. But the climate isn’t the only thing chilly in Fortitude. Just when the development-hungry governor (Sofie Gråbøl) announces plans …
Joaquin Phoenix, with his weirdo-chameleon persona in the media (remember when he grew a beard and said he was quitting acting to become a rapper?), is, at the very least, always interesting. When you see him in Inherent Vice as “Doc” Sportello, with his hippie mutton-chop sideburns and greasy white-man afro, well, it seems to …
The only thing I’ve ever heard anyone say about Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is, “That movie is SO stupid.” For fifteen years I’ve taken this as a negative comment, only to find that people are stopping short in their synopsis. For some reason, they’re all too highbrow to complete the sentence: Stop! Or …
As someone who never watched a single episode of Veronica Mars, I couldn’t help wondering what all the fuss was about. How did it develop such an intense following and what’s with this fervent devotion to Kristen Bell? I mean, she’s a nice girl and all, but what the heck? I approached the movie (funded …