Posts

COMEDY DRAMA. “The Phoenician Scheme.” / “Murder at Hollow Creek.” / “Holmes & Watson.” / “Ingrid Goes West.” / “Black Dynamite.” / “Shaolin Soccer.” / “Room for Rent.”

Image
“The Phoenician Scheme” (2025, Amazon Prime) black comedy espionage thriller , written and directed by Wes Anderson . A ruthless businessman seeks to reconcile with his estranged daughter and complete an ambitious infrastructure project in Phoenicia .         This movie's feast of stars is nothing but tantalizingly delicious: Benicio del Toro , Riz Ahmed , Tom Hanks , Bryan Cranston , Mathieu Amalric , Jeffrey Wright , Scarlett Johansson , Benedict Cumberbatch , Rupert Friend , Hope Davis , F. Murray Abraham , Charlotte Gainsbourg , Willem Dafoe , and Bill Murray . (Forget Michael Cera, I never liked him.)        Wes Anderson's gaudy, pastel-hued sets are, of course, the centerpiece of this film. Benicio del Toro's Zsa-Zsa Korda is vintage Benicio but that is expected of him. The real enchantment here is Mia Threapleton as Sister Liesl. Alluringly focused, she renders the wit and charm to a movie that is interes...
Post a Comment
Read more

CRIME DRAMA. “I Came By.” / “Emily the Criminal.” / “Out of the Blue.”

Image
“I Came By” (2022, Netflix) British crime thriller. An anarchist graffiti artist breaks into the homes of London’s wealthy elite. While targeting a retired, ostensibly progressive judge, he uncovers a hidden basement.         For sure, this crime thriller isn't cliche but not exactly Hitchcockian but still a couch glue. Credit goes to Hugh Bonneville's Sir Hector Blake, whose sinister ministrations can be a comic cool or deadpan macabre. Still, worth your while.         The deal with (writer/director) Babak Anvari's work? Kinda tricky. To like it or to not like it. I just saw his “Hallow Road” on Hulu, click it and see for yourself. 🎥💻📽 “Emily the Criminal” (2022, Tubi) crime thriller. A young woman saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a criminal record gets involved in a credit card scam that pulls her into the criminal underworld of Los Angeles. Stars Aubrey Plaza.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

FOREIGN FILMS. “Sirat.” / “Brick.” / “Knocking.” / “Mont Foster.” / “Infierno Grande.”

Image
“Sirāt” (2025, Hulu) Spanish/French drama road film. About a father who is in search of his missing daughter along with his son and a group of ravers in the deserts of southern Morocco.         This disturbing movie won several accolades at the 40th Goya Awards . At the 98th Academy Awards , it was nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Sound . “Sirat” also received honors in 2025's Cannes.        This movie is a wicked reminder of friendship and isolation as it also shudders with the horror of abandoned mines in war-wasted geographies as refugees journey to safer grounds, and peace.         But there are no gunfires in this movie. Or humans in beastly combat. But emaciated travelers mostly dance in trance to electronica music. An inventive cinematic take by director Oliver Laxe. The sound of pounding bassline beats the conscience louder than an explodin...
Post a Comment
Read more

DRAMA. “The Return.” / “Daddio.” / “Days of the Bagnold Summer.” / “Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.” / “Animals.” / “Prozac Nation.”

Image
“The Return” (2024, Amazon Prime) drama or a retelling of the second half of Homer 's “ Odyssey .” Twenty years after fighting in the Trojan War and journeying back home, Odysseus washes up naked on the shores of his home island Ithaca . He is tended to by Eumaeus and Yias.          It would help to revisit the source epic to make sense of “The Return,” otherwise the entire proceedings in this movie wouldn't make sense. It isn't really a standalone storyline.         But Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche's piercingly involved performance, the former intense and the latter restrained, keep the drama worth watching. 🎥💻📽 “Daddio” (2023, Hulu) drama film , which stars Dakota Johnson as a young woman returning home to Midtown Manhattan from JFK International Airpor t by cab after a trip, who unexpectedly ends up conversing with her taxi driver ( Sean Penn ).         Ro...
Post a Comment
Read more

ACTION. “Jack Ryan: Ghost War.” / “Nobody 2.” / “God Is a Bullet.” / “Dangerous.” / “American Ultra.” / “House of the Rising Sun.”

Image
“Jack Ryan: Ghost War” (2026, Amazon Prime) political action thriller. A retired Jack Ryan is reluctantly pulled back into espionage by CIA Director James Greer. Ryan travels to Dubai to recover intel from an MI6 contact, only to discover that a rogue black-ops unit called "Starling" is enacting a terror plot in London.         If you've seen all Jack Ryan movies and finished all four seasons of the Amazon Prime TV series, this ghost thing is an obligatory bore. And for those who are not familiar with the CIA's black-ops and military contractors would be lost as to why these former war buddies are killing each other.         Everything here is generic blow-’em-up and shoot-’em-up whambam, all 1 hour and 45 minutes of the movie, which by the way, is again dimly-lit!🎥💻📽 “Nobody 2” (2025, Netflix) action thriller . Sequel to “ Nobody ” (2021). Retired assassin Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) attempts to take a ...
Post a Comment
Read more