Denzel Washington casts an imposing figure in Fences, but Viola Davis won’t be overlooked

Denzel Washington slams grand at the center of August Wilson’s family tale Fences. Washington directed and stands tall (and wide) as Troy Maxson, the self-made leader of his gathering in the proud little brick house in a lower-class African American Pittsburgh neighborhood. Wilson adapted the screenplay from his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama that premiered in 1987…

CHIPS isn’t exactly TV nostalgia, but there’s still something funny about Dax Shephard

If you’re one of the many millions who’ve taken comfort in the motorcycle-riding savvy and people skills of Jon Baker and Frank Llewelyn Poncherello in the half-drama, half-comedy TV hour CHiPs that maneuvered its way into our social mosaic on NBC from 1977 to 1983 and through syndication and streaming seemingly thereafter, you may have…

No, I didn’t get an invite to this one

When we walked into the corridor to see Office Christmas Party at the Regal Cinemas’ franchise at Syracuse mega shopping, dining and entertaining complex Destiny USA, my dear wife Karen caught the photo-op backdrop for the movie. And told me to pose. Yes, I listen to these requests. No poster possibilities here. What’s is the…

Coming clean about a trip to Manlius Art Cinema

The owner of the quaint little Manlius Art Cinema likes to greet his patrons before the film rolls. When my dear wife Karen and I visited his narrow little joint to see Jackie during its exclusive run, Mr. Nat Tobin went up to the front and got some stuff off his chest. He’s had to…

Get ready for all kinds of sad with Manchester by the Sea

If you haven’t caught up to the big, little indie from the mind and pen of Kenneth Lonergan, please do get hold of Manchester by the Sea some way, somehow. My dear wife Karen and I sat transfixed in front of the flat screen after I brought home a Blu-Ray from my job at the…

Make no mistake, Moonlight delivers powerful emotions

Barry Jenkins got so much right with Moonlight. When I caught up with this year’s Academy Award winner for the coveted Best Picture trophy on my flat screen with my dear wife Karen, I sat stock still following the three-part telling of the life and times of a boy, teen and man named Chiron as…

Who’s the real outcast in Table 19, you’ll wonder

Oh, Eloise seems so put together as she makes her entrance way back there to sit with the other (very) strangers sitting around table in the way back in the reception of her best friend, whose brother is the best man. And also is the guy who dumped her two months ago. By text. Which…

The Sapphires brings a needed shine to Aboriginal talent

The photo of Chris O’Dowd in a hipster singing pose with the interestingly arranged women surrounding him caught my attention on the Blu-Ray rack at the Liverpool Public Library. The Sapphires, I mused to myself, rolling the title around for a moment before I pulled it and checked it out at my workplace for viewing…

You never know when you’ll fall in like with the spies next door

Opposites sure do attract. Movies like Keeping Up With the Joneses wouldn’t have it any other way. This action-adventure-comedy directed by Greg Mottola from a screenplay by Michael LeSieur sends a godly secret agent couple played by statuesque Jon Hamm and Gal Godot undercover into an Atlanta cu de sac populated by the scrupulously ordinary…

Oh, baby, Bridget Jones delivers some laughs and affection for the franchise

Oh, that Bridget Jones. She falls for smooth-talking sports agent who had her from hello … Wait a minute. That was Renée Zellweger’s character in Jerry Maguire. That one was from the Way Wayback Machine, in 1996, when she played a sweet and innocent woman who entangles herself with Tom Cruise’s Jerry despite herself, but…