comedy
VICTORIA AND ABDUL film review
– By Cate Marquis – Director Stephen Frears’ funny, charming VICTORIA AND ABDUL was inspired by a real event late in the life of Queen Victoria, when the aging British monarch had her mood brighten by the arrival of a visitor from India, much to the dismay of her advisers and her son, the crown…
I DO…UNTIL I DON’T film review
– By Cate Marquis – When divorce laws loosened and sexual mores changed in the ’60s and ’70s, there was a spate of “why marry” films. Although they had contemporary settings, the comedies generally followed the outline of 18th century bedroom farce, with warring couples, bed-hopping and true love winning in the end. Director/writer/star Lake…
THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD film review
– By Mark Glass – THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD has all the first-rate action and humor of Deadpool without needing to know superhero lore to get the jokes. After many films, the first time I truly enjoyed a Ryan Reynolds performance was in last year’s hilarious spoof of all things Marvel and superheroesque, DEADPOOL. He…
LOGAN LUCKY film review
– By Mark Glass – LOGAN LUCKY’s redneck variation on Ocean’s Eleven and other slick caper flicks makes crime pay – at least for the viewers. If light-hearted heist films like OCEAN’S ELEVEN or THE ITALIAN JOB (either the originals or re-makes of both) were stripped of their glamorous settings and star power, this…
THE WOMEN’S BALCONY film review
– By Cate Marquis – Charming and warm, the Israeli comedy “The Women’s Balcony” entertains but also captures an appealing feeling of community, and even family, that being part of a religious congregation can bring. It is no small feat. That sense of a close, happy congregation was inspired by screenwriter Shlomit Nehama’s own…
THE HERO film review
– By Cate Marquis – Sometimes one role can define an actor’s career. Sam Elliott plays such an actor in late life, facing his own mortality and coming to grips with his life and career, in the sometimes funny, sometimes touching drama THE HERO. THE HERO is an intimate personal drama that draws on universal…
BABY DRIVER film review – by Cate Marquis
Writer/director Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD) delivers the kind of summer movie you hope for – action-packed, light, with a bit of humor – in BABY DRIVER. Car chases and a non-stop jukebox music soundtrack help drive this highly entertaining flick, which shares its title with a Simon and Garfunkel song. This delightful summer…
BEATRIZ AT DINNER film review – by Mark Glass
I confess to being predisposed to admire films in which an actress who rose to stardom largely on her beauty dives into a role that seriously downplays, if not obscures, the looks that made her famous. The most stunning conversion along those lines was Charlize Theron’s adopted dumpiness for her Oscar-winning role in Monster. Before…
CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE – film review
– By Mark Glass – This animated comic adventure is based on a series of books about the superhero fantasies of two fourth-graders, mostly at the expense of their rotund, sourpuss principal. We can’t be sure if the part of the title after the colon was intended to mean that all other epics pale…
A MAN CALLED OVE film review
– By Cate Marquis – Curmudgeon delights in Swedish comedy A MAN CALLED OVE Rating: 4 out of 5 stars In the Swedish dark comedy A MAN CALLED OVE, director/scriptwriter Hannes Holm takes us on a roller-coaster trip through the life of old curmudgeon. Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is the kind of guy every neighborhood…