movie reviews
Movie Review: Ad Astra
3.5 stars out of 5On the line to buy movie tickets, I asked the woman behind me what she was seeing. “Downton Abbey. You?” Brad Pitt in space, I told her. I got up to the register and, from outside Theater 2, my friend Meghan called out to me. What a nice surprise! I asked […]
Movie Review: Miles Davis — Birth of the Cool
5 stars out of 5 When I was learning about music in the ’80s, Miles Davis was a presence, albeit an odd one. He seemed grumpy, Prince dug him, and Miles faced away from the audience. (Well, if that was good enough for the Jesus & Mary Chain….) I slowly realized what an important figure […]
Movie Review: IT Chapter Two
3.5 stars out of 5 IT was my No. 4 top movie of 2017. Chapter Two, on the other hand, should file for Chapter 11. (Hmm, that doesn’t really make sense, but I’m sticking with it.) What happened? Director Andy Muschietti is back; so is Gary Dauberman, one of the original’s three screenwriters. Pennywise is […]
Blinded by the Light
4.5 stars out of 5 This movie is incredibly corny, somewhat cheesily made… and I really loved it. Based on a true story, we meet Javed, a 16-year-old Pakistani boy in working-class Luton, England. He dreams of being a writer but his traditional dad pushes Javed to pursue a “respectable” career — doctor, lawyer, etc. […]
Movie Review: Brian Banks
3.5 stars out of 5I honestly thought I’d bought a ticket to a documentary; that’s how quickly I had read the description of this movie. Was caught off-guard when “Based on a true story” popped up on the screen. But hey, I can adjust. I did correctly read that the story involved the real-life California […]
Movie Review: The Mountain
2.5 stars out of 5 Jeff Goldblum and old-timey mental hospitals? This really seemed up my alley. We meet young, sad, inexpressive Andy who works in a hockey rink run by his grandpa oh wait the movie says it’s his dad. It is the early 1950s and the world is grey and brown, or at […]
Movie Review: Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
4.5 stars out of 5I feel like I’m in an unhealthy long-term relationship with Quentin Tarantino. We got off to an excellent start, but now he disappoints me time and again, and yet always manages to lure me back. Every now and then, he surprises me with a delightful bed-and-breakfast long weekend (um, wait, I […]
Movie Review: Sword of Trust
2.5 stars out of 5 The trailer looked cute — Marc Maron working in a pawn shop. Was playing at the artsy theater in Asbury Park, so I could beat the traffic before a concert, chat with the friendly ticket booth guy, sit in some air conditioning, and enjoy another chocolate covered graham cracker. Nice […]
Movie Review: Marianne & Leonard — Words of Love
4 stars out of 5 I’ll never hear the song “So Long, Marianne” quite the same way again. What a sweet and sad love story this documentary is! I’ve been a Leonard Cohen fan since my mid-20s — “Bird on a Wire” was the first that really got me — but I never knew too […]
Movie Review: Midsommar
4 stars out of 5 This might sound a little weird, but Midsommar made me miss Woody Allen. I was the only one in an Asbury Park theater watching this thoroughly f’ed up story unfold against a gorgeous sunny Swedish backdrop. And I flashed back to Woody’s summer releases. Every year there seemed to be […]
Jack Silbert, curator