Independent comedies are full of single young adults trying to navigate life or falling in and out of love, but there aren’t any depictions of modern marital discord. In comes Zoe Lister-Jones with her directorial debut, “Band Aid,” starring her and Adam Pally as a constantly bickering couple who try starting a band as their […]

Horror purists have to be careful not to get duped because of films like “It Comes at Night.” With its creepy horror title, a trailer that presents like a mysterious “cabin in the woods” zombie movie and a solid amount of critical praise, horror fans will undoubtedly give Trey Edward Shults’ sophomore feature a go. […]

Wasn’t sure what I would end my Tom Hanks marathon on, but after just watching “American Made,” the subject of  this film felt very relevant. This review comes from February 11, 2009, which would make it a second-semester college film. That’s right, I did things like watch “Charlie Wilson’s War” instead of partying.

Edgar Wright’s concept heist flick “Baby Driver” shows that in the right hands, a single idea can be fleshed out into a single good movie. Anyone could have thought to fuse music and action to a choreographed extreme, but Wright’s aptitude for gleeful style and good storytelling instincts give “Baby Driver” some serious wheels. Although […]

It’s hard to include this review in this Tom Hanks appreciation series, because I didn’t write about Hanks’ performance, but the rest of the pickings include reviews that were very short and admittedly weak (and also didn’t mention Hanks’ performance). Anyway, “The Green Mile” is a great movie! This review is from July 17, 2010.

Coming-of-age films from green, independent filmmakers have a tendency to hit their mark at a surprisingly higher rather than other stories, but something about Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” feels more like a bull’s-eye. Her semi-autobiographical snapshot of a high school senior exploring her identity has an assured wit and a firm grasp on the emotional […]

With this next Tom Hanks archive review, I have to admit that I’m cheating. I have watched “Splash” before, but never reviewed it; in fact, I don’t have reviews of any 1980s Hanks films, and I wanted to get something posted from his earlier work. So last weekend I watched “Splash,” which enchanted me when […]

Jumping way forward in time for my next Tom Hanks archive review (in the spirit of T.Hanks-giving) to probably his best performance of this decade, though I suppose it’s neck and neck with “Sully,” given the similarities. I’m not sure how this didn’t make it onto the site, possibly because I was too late to […]

The hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe has continued to inch further and further into comedic territory in recent years; with “Thor: Ragnarok,” it completely passes through the comic threshold. With its laughs-first approach, from start to finish “Thor: Ragnarok” is Marvel Studios’ funniest film. The comedic instincts of director Taika Waititi (“What We Do in […]

Because Thanksgiving is approaching, I thought I’d do a month of reviews from my archive of films starring Tom Hanks (or, T. Hanks). This is perhaps my oldest written review of a Hanks film.

Like a madman creator trying to play God, Ridley Scott and the team behind the “Alien” prequels “Prometheus” and now “Alien: Covenant” keep running the same experiment with slight variations, never quite able to replicate the excitement of that initial moment of creation (1979’s “Alien”). There’s nothing wrong or bad about either these precursor films, […]

“Blade Runner 2049” is not a conventional sequel. The 1982 original failed to reach commercial success despite being a sci-fi film released during the years of the original “Star Wars” trilogy and starring Harrison Ford (and coming from acclaimed “Alien” director Ridley Scott). So there was not a lot of financial incentive to revisit this […]

First they came for the TV shows of kids who grew up in the ’80s. It was only a matter of time before they came for my shows. As for how this big-screen adaptation fairs, color me indifferent.

One of Disney’s most treasured animated musicals of the ’90s and perhaps its most critically acclaimed, “Beauty and the Beast” was understandably high in the queue for in the studio’s recent spree of live-action remakes. Led by the popular and talented Emma Watson as Belle and under the veteran guidance of director Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls,” […]

King Kong holds the honor of being among Hollywood’s first movie monsters, but “monster” has never been as relevant a label for the colossal ape as it is for his latest incarnation in “Kong: Skull Island.” Whereas most people think of Kong as a misunderstood beast who falls for the beautiful Anne Darrow, in this […]