My life at the movies.
Directed by Robert Altman. Starring George Segal, Elliott Gould, Ann Prentiss, and Gwen Welles.
My favorite gambling movie. George Segal and Elliott Gould amble through card rooms, tracks, and bars, culminating in a high-stakes Reno poker game. Director Robert Altman’s cynical—yet often humorous—portrait conveys a visceral sense of Segal and Gould’s swings. Short on plot but long on atmosphere, it’s the closest thing to being there.
Directed by Ronny Yu. Starring Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, and Nick Stabile.
A post-Scream reboot that turns up the meta-humor and turns down the horror. Continue reading...
Directed by Zack Snyder. Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, and Malin Akerman.
In an alternate 1985 where the US won the Vietnam War and Nixon is still President, an aging costumed hero’s murder proves the tip of a dark conspiracy. Continue reading...
Directed by Tom McLoughlin. Starring Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, and Kerry Noonan.
Jason’s back, and he’s brought meta-humor. Continue reading...
Directed by Brian De Palma. Starring Tom Smothers, John Astin, Katharine Ross, and Orson Welles.
Brian De Palma’s first studio film. Tom Smothers plays a burned-out corporate exec who quits his high-paying job to become a tap-dancing magician. Continue reading...
Directed by William A. Seiter. Starring Phillips Lord, Effie Palmer, Frank Albertson, and Bette Davis.
Starts rough, with an inert, talky scene where Phillips Lord spins a folksy yarn about his finances. Things improve as the script settles into a rural melodrama involving a pair of young lovers looking to elope and the return of an adopted boy’s brutish biological father. Bette Davis plays one of the young lovers in her then biggest part to date. She’s fine, if unremarkable in the role. Continue reading...
Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, Charles Butterworth, and Donald Cook.
John Barrymore plays a crippled Russian dancer turned puppeteer, who raises a young boy to achieve the success that escaped him. Continue reading...
Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Starring Harriet Andersson, Lars Ekborg, Dagmar Ebbesen, and Åke Fridell.
Ingmar Bergman arrives. In Stockholm, teens Harry and Monika work dead-end jobs. A chance meeting leads to a date. Romance blossoms between dreamer Harry and free-spirit Monika. But a fight with her drunken father forces Monika to flee her home. Soon, Harry and Monika decide to quit their jobs and run away together in Harry’s father’s boat. They find paradise in the Stockholm archipelago but said paradise proves short-lived. Continue reading...
Directed by Jack Bender. Starring Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves, Jeremy Sylvers, and Travis Fine.
Resurrected again, Chucky resumes his murderous quest to escape his artificial body. Continue reading...
Directed by Josh Boone. Starring Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, and Alice Braga.
We meet an assortment of angst-ridden teens with lethal mutant powers imprisoned in a hospital resembling a boarding school. Teen drama ensues, culminating in a big CGI finale. The single location and shallow characterization make this play like the pilot for a TV series. I liked Maisie Williams’s performance, but I knew her character from the comics and may have imported more depth than the film proffered.
