Remember video stores? They tended to be hole-in-the-wall shops stacked floor to ceiling with VHS cassettes of every movie you didn’t want to rent, but you couldn’t rent the one you wanted because it had been rented already. In terms…
The waves of the Pacific Ocean can be mesmerizing, providing solace and peace and, for surfers, excitement — a welcome counterpoint to the noise of Southern California’s daily grind. The Mason family seems to be looking for this sort peace…
The heavy-handedness of the irony in Sean Baker’s new movie, The Florida Project, begins with the opening titles, over which we hear Kool & the Gang singing “Ce-le-brate good times, come on!” while the camera introduces us to the sun-drenched…
The Society of Mayflower Descendants in Plymouth, Massachusetts, keeps pretty close watch over folks who can trace their lineage back to the Pilgrims. Among the descendants are the predictable (the Adams clan), the shocking (Lizzie Borden and John Hinckley), and…
Films about race and racism can be important. They’re also difficult to make. Witness Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation, which failed last year to convince moviegoers and award voters. Now, 2017 has been a better year for the genre….
Frances McDormand is a force. It’s something in the actress’s voice, her eyes, her sense of humor and her quiet charisma. Look at her, engage with her character, and you are off on a trip. That’s certainly true for her…
Growing up with a Protestant minister for a father, I learned very little about Catholicism. I knew Christianity — the Dutch-reformed kind. Catholics? We didn’t like them and, supposedly, we weren’t like them. Now some of my best friends are…
Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller), the hero of Mike White’s Brad’s Status, is a prig of the first water, which should be apparent to anyone not already a part, as he is, of the cozy little world of the media, “non-profits”…
Before I talk about the drama Marshall, a moment to catch up on a film that has been in theaters for a week. Loving Vincent tells a crime story of sorts about the death of my Dutch compatriot, the painter…
Harvey Weinstein left on a jet plane to Europe to get treatment for “sex addiction.” He’s not avoiding prosecution for sex crimes. Of course, not. Harvey is also being divorced by his wife. More women are coming out and revealing…
