Artistic ambition can be a bitch in this day and age. Just try to make a movie that doesn’t sound or look like your typical Hollywood film and the angry dogs will be out to get you. That’s Darren Aronofsky, from “Requiem for a Dream” to “Black Swan”, […]
Movies based on Stephen King’s novels tend to range from terrific (“The Shawshank Redemption”) to just plain awful (“Cell”), but being one of his scariest and most popular stories, I approached “It” with high expectations. Filmmaker Tommy Lee Wallace had already adapted the story into a mini-series back […]
If you’ve seen Joel Edgerton in “Warrior” and “The Gift”, you probably know he’s an actor who means business. In “It Comes At Night”, an indie horror film that distances itself from the multiplex formula, Edgerton sinks his teeth into the complex role of a family man who […]
Sounds juicy: Charlize Theron kicking ass like there’s no tomorrow. But “Atomic Blonde”, directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman who co-directed “John Wick” (it shows), is neither the action movie of the year nor the disaster I feared. It falls somewhere in between, and for that, I have […]
I approach every psychological movie with a combination of excitement and apprehension, and “A Cure for Wellness” is no exception: it’s a visual feast, courtesy of director Gore Verbinsky, featuring a superior performance from its leading man, Dane DeHaan. How to describe the story? I’d say it’s a […]
It came out of nowhere. First time director Jordan Peele, working with a tight budget (around $5 million), has managed to craft one of the year’s most profitable horror/slasher/comedy/satirical movies ($149 million at last count). So what’s all the fuss about? On the surface, it sounds like a […]
After a series of disappointing Lebanese movies (even “Nuts” was a crushing disappointment), it’s refreshing to encounter a local movie that I can genuinely recommend. Filmmaker Philippe Aractingi (“Bosta”, “Under The Bombs”, “Heritages”), who has been making feature films for over a decade, said that he wanted to […]
World War II movies have been around since…well World War II, that you start to wonder if there’s still room for more. But I have faith in director Robert Zemeckis (“Cast Away”, “Forrest Gump”) and I have nothing but admiration for Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. They play intelligence […]
It’s been a decade since Ron Howard’s big screen adaptation of the controversial “The Da Vinci Code” hit theaters and was met with a negative reaction from critics and audiences alike. “Angels & Demons” followed in 2009 and despite its muddled plot, it was a much more superior film. Now […]
You’d think a Mystery film starring Adrien Brody that looks and feels like a 1940’s film noir would be worth recommending. It isn’t. “Manhattan Night” follows Brody’s desperate search for the truth when a seductive woman asks him to investigate the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband. As […]
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