Glenn Close perfectly holds her secret, but The Wife remains imperfect

Glenn Close deserved all that acclaim for her work in The Wife. She took the role of Joan Castleman first drawn up in Meg Wolitzer’s novel and wrenched every emotional nuance out of the story as she and writer husband Joe embark on the journey to accept the Nobel Prize. We meet them in their…

Nothing’s as easy as it seems in A Simple Favor

Stephanie Smothers seems to lead an uncomplicated life, sure, when we meet her at the start of A Simple Favor. The single mom earns her attention online. No, not those type of sites. She sets up a camera and runs her own mommy vlog, dispensing tips for women of similar mind and pursuits. Then one…

We know Dwayne Johnson can play strong guys, but Skyscraper may stretch the limit

Bad guys foiled by the guy played by Dwayne Johnson? Now that’s a comfortable enough fit for The Rock. Yet still, an eyebrow might be raised at what director and writer Rawson Marshall Thurber put the harried guy by the name of Will Sawyer through in Skyscraper. Maybe both eyebrows. Sawyer, a former FBI guy,…

Sure, sometimes they do go Overboard with the schtick, but you still gotta love Eugenio Derbez and Anna Faris at the end

Sometimes unlikely stuff plays out up there on the screen. Hollywood folks can decide to flip the roles in three-decades-later remake of a flick that’s somewhat of a cult classic and it can turn out … Lots of fun. Take the new Overboard. Really. This new version, directed by Rob Greenberg from his screenplay written…

A Kid Like Jake doesn’t quite know where to go

Things are going quite well for this urban family in the Big Apple as psychologist dad does his figuring out at the office, former-attorney mom happily stays home to raise their son and said kid Jake has a fine time creatively dressing up as his favorite story characters, in his room and with the other…

Sorry, Rick, I didn’t feel much sympathy for you

Yes, this kid truly was put in many tough situations. It was not easy being one Richard Wersche Jr. in Detroit circa 1973. Richard Sr. thought it was a good idea to cart his just-turned-teenager son around to gun shows with him to exploit his knowledge of assault weapons. For buying and selling. The FBI…

Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong keeps all his emotions encapsulated in First Man

Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped down that Apollo 11 ladder and made history. First Man takes us inside many places. Airplane rides to the edge of the atmosphere that led to the Gemini series, onward and upward. The tight-knit crew of men NASA tapped to ride into space. The capsules that took them. And,…

The glint remains in Robert Redford’s eyes as Forrest Tucker in The Old Man and the Gun

Forrest Tucker was quite the artist. Con artist. Break-out artist. Bank robber, top-drawer. In The Old Man and the Gun, director and writer David Lowery (based on the New Yorker article by David Grann) draws Tucker as a man who uses his simple charm to win over people of many ways of life. Robert Redford…

So what would happen if Pooh really needed to save Christopher Robin?

Imagine, if you will, a grown-up Christopher Robin ear-deep in a dilemma. He lives in London with a wife and daughter. He’s in charge of the family luggage company. That takes so much of his time, the family feels distant. Financial times are hard. He’s told that unless he saves the day by working even…

There’s a lot of love to be unearthed in Juliet, Naked

Oh, goodie, another fun little movie that got its life from the pages of a Nick Hornby novel. Juliet, Naked starts out about music and some eccentric little people who center their lives around it, yes, those of you forever fans of High Fidelity. There once was this rocker by the name of Tucker Crowe…