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The first half of director Jon M. Chu’s stirring and audacious two-part adaption of the smash Broadway musical Wicked was so accomplished it actually stood on its own. Ending with Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba soaring into sky and song as she starts to morph…

In many ways, Ken Burns is the Van Halen of historical documentary directors. Before you jump, hear me out. Watching the acclaimed filmmaker's upcoming The American Revolution with some apprehension, it became clear that the six-part PBS…

You have to give writer-director Lotfy Nathan points for originality. His new film, The Carpenter’s Son, is not just any standard telling of the oft-told story of Joseph and Mary and their son, Jesus, but rather a speculation of his teenage years…

Looking back at the '80s, it's hard to comprehend now not just how big a movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger was in those days but how much he contributed to genre cinema. Beginning with 1982's Conan the Barbarian, the decade gave him an extraordinary run, taking in action, sci-fi and even comedy…

As the cast of the Now You See Me franchise reunites, the third installment feels like an attempt to teach old magicians new tricks. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t takes the franchise back to its roots as new director Ruben Fleischer prepares to…

Where does the time go? Clint Bentley's follow-up to 2021's impressive but annoyingly little-seen Jockey is a moving, masterful study of a life without such measure, a working man's blues that begins at the end of the late 19th century, just as…

Much of the creative talent behind Netflix’s latest animated feature film, In Your Dreams, came from working at one time for Pixar, so expectations for something on the level of that ‘toon giant might be higher than they should be. If you come in hoping for the kind of innovative films Pixar has…

Whatever happened to subtext? With regard to the Predator franchise, it seems weird to bring this up so late in the day, after six movies and two Alien tie-ins. But the question that bubbles up right at the very beginning of Predator: Badlands is very simple: what does the idea of the predator even me…

What better day than Halloween to review a sequel to perhaps the greatest horror film of all time. No, I am not talking about Halloween and its myriad endless follow-ups, but rather 1973’s The Exorcist, which with 10 nominations including Best Picture…

Some films are just ripped from the headlines, but in the case of the new political thriller Anniversary, it appears that this story of an authoritarian government and one-party system taking over America has simply stumbled coincidentally on to the…

If Song Sung Blue, which had its world premiere as the closing-night film of AFI Fest, weren’t a true story no one would ever have the nerve to make it. The unlikely triumphs and unspeakable tragedies of a Milwaukee Neil Diamond tribute band known as…

As an actor and director Ben Stiller is well known, merging those talents in movies like Zoolander, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Tropic Thunder, The Cable Guy and countless others, and most recently as director and producer of the Emmy darling Severa…