movie reviews
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 […]
Movie Review: Spider-Man — Far From Home
3.5 stars out of 5 The final 45 minutes of this movie is pretty terrific superhero stuff. Go get ‘im, Spidey! Unfortunately, there are about 90 minutes prior to this that are Far From Great. We begin by seeing a high-school Powerpoint presentation, and it’s teens doing it, so they use Comic Sans. No they […]
Movie Review: The Last Black Man in San Francisco
4 stars out of 5 We hope for a different kind of movie but usually get same-y ones, yet every now and again something fresh comes along. The Last Black Man in San Francisco is such a film and it made me smile. Not that they reinvented the form or anything; I was frequently reminded […]
Jack Silbert, curator