Fantastic performances from Viola Davis and the late, great Chadwick Boseman, enacting the Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s play, make “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” a must-see. I knew almost nothing about Ma Rainey, the blues legend who rose to fame in the early 20th century, and this movie […]
We tend to take our 5 senses for granted. So imagine Ruben’s reaction (played by a wonderful Riz Ahmed) when he starts to lose his hearing. When we first meet him, Ruben is happily playing the drums with his metal band. Then out of nowhere, the sounds just […]
2020 was a terrible year for moviegoers, and with the absence of cinemas, it was so easy for a lot of movies to get lost in the shuffle. “Sylvie’s Love” comes straight out of Amazon Studios, and it’s an old-fashioned loved story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Set in […]
I love courtroom dramas and I love legendary writer Aaron Sorkin. So what do you get when you fuse the two together? Fireworks. That’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7” in a nutshell, a completely absorbing, high octane courtroom drama that hardly misses a beat. Sorkin also directs […]
This hidden gem from Netflix is based on a Pulitzer prize-winning play from the 1960’s that still resonates even in 2020. I do suspect that no screen adaptation can do any stage play justice, but with a cast that features Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells […]
This gritty film from writer director Antonio Campos is one of the finest things you’ll stream on Netflix this year. One story links to another as we follow the journey of a young man (Tom Holland) and the bizarre characters that inhabit a small town in West Virginia. […]
I read somewhere that this movie was a “disappointing step back” for writer director Asghar Farhadi. But how do you top movies like “A Separation”, “The Past” and “The Salesman”? “Everybody Knows” may not be Farhadi’s best and most compelling work, but it has an intriguing story to […]
I don’t always review documentaries on this blog, but when I do, it’s definitely something worth your time. “Mucho Mucho Amor” is Netflix’s latest feature about someone I knew very little about. Walter Mercado rose to fame in the 70’s and 80’s as a Puerto Rican astrologer who […]
The surprise action hit of the summer stars Charlize Theron as an immortal mercenary who has been around for centuries. If this sounds like generic stuff, then perhaps it is. But in the hands of director Gina Prince- Bythewood, “The Old Guard” feels fresh and, might I add, […]
Up until a chaotic final act, Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” is a potent and powerful film that is also very entertaining. In telling the story of Four African American veterans who return to Vietnam decades after the war to find the remains of their friends and a […]