With 2023’s compelling Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle, The Covenant, Guy Ritchie took a more serious dramatic turn, away from the flashy action, glib humor and the mashup of period settings with contemporary attitude that had characterized many of his biggest commercial successes. With its typically Ritchie-esque ensemble of quippy rascals, The …
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The fifth and latest entry in the Warner Bros. MonsterVerse franchise has the misfortune of arriving shortly on the heels of the Oscar-crowned Godzilla Minus One. That Japanese film demonstrated that it’s still possible to make a monster movie involving the iconic, irradiated giant lizard that also features a compelling …
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Bradley Cooper’s Maestro opens with a quote attributed to Leonard Bernstein: “A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.” If that’s the definition of a work of art then Maestro … kind of isn’t one? It …
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You can probably guess the premise of Chelsea Peretti’s occasionally amusing film First Time Female Director from its title. The comedy, written and directed by the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star, follows the misadventures of a local theater’s first woman director — how scandal thrusts her into the spotlight and a lack …
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves opened to an honorable enough $38.5 million at the domestic box office, enough to take out John Wick: Chapter 4 and top the chart. The big-budget movie — based on Hasbro’s fantasy tabletop game — came in ahead of expectations but will still need …
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There’s a slightly intelligent wink-wink opening to actor Randall Park’s debut function as a director, Shortcomings, which, when all is alleged and finished, largely fails to ship on its promise. A younger couple, the aspiring filmmaker, Ben (Justin H. Min), and his girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), are watching what’s clearly …
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