illustrated

A movie adaptation rarely betters its original Broadway musical, but the first film of a two-part transfer to the screen of WICKED does so in almost every way. The detailed production design, [...]

Can we just give Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti their Emmys now? It’s hard to imagine that those performances let alone other sublime aspects of the TV miniseries THE PENGUIN will be [...]

During the press junket for the fantasy film WONKA last holiday season, Hugh Grant said that he had entered the “freak-show period” of his career, playing baddies, psychopaths, weirdos, perverts, [...]

For those who think that Hollywood has run out of fresh ideas, here’s a pitch for you: A Mexican drug cartel leader wants to transition to become a woman, keep the millions he made illegally, yet [...]

Anytime anyone tells a story about the hidden workings of the Catholic Church, you know it’s probably not going to be a flattering picture of the church. The new film CONCLAVE, based on the 2016 [...]

I almost didn’t want to review ANORA because all the wonders of the film are best left to be discovered by audiences with precious little given away by film critics. Suffice it to say, go to this [...]

What makes for an exceedingly memorable romance on screen? Certainly, the writing needs to be smart, the actors need to have chemistry, and the obstacles their characters face should feel like [...]

Many who’ve seen JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX have not been kind online to director Todd Phillips’ sequel. Many of those same folks had little good to say about Phillips’ 2019 commercial and [...]

Coralie Fargeat’s dark new comedy THE SUBSTANCE takes a lot of chances and succeeds with most of them. It’s a horror film really, showcasing the vicious sexism permeating show business and the [...]

When I saw the original BEETLEJUICE film in the theater at a sneak preview 36 years ago, I found it be a wonderfully imaginative and well-produced funhouse of a movie. It may have been unwieldy [...]