Film Reviews
Category“A Wrinkle In Time” Is the Book Adaptation It Was Worth Waiting Half a Century For
Annihilation author Jeff VanderMeer has been hailed as “the King of Weird Fiction.” The Queen Mother, surely, must be Madeleine L’Engle, w..
“Dream Big”: Engineering Inspires at Science Museum of Minnesota Omnitheater
Thinking back to my ’80s childhood, I’m not quite sure what I expected to be doing when I got to be my dad’s age. As a white middle-class ..
“Annihilation” Tastes a Rainbow of Gruesome Death
Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Annihilation is, as the New Yorker describes, a paradigm of “weird fiction.” The first volume of his Southern Reac..
“The Phantom Thread” is “Fifty Shades of Grey,” Except Literally
Daniel Day-Lewis attended this year’s Golden Globes with a shaved head, looking uncannily like Matt Lauer. Every time the camera cut to hi..
“The Shape of Water”: A Love Story Sans Towel
The first half of The Shape of Water is a marvel of quiet visual storytelling. Elisa (Sally Hawkins) works on the cleaning staff of a myst..
“The Disaster Artist” Tells the Story of “The Room”
Is it possible to make a good movie about a bad one? How about if you’re James Franco? The answer to both questions, it seems, is yes. Wit..
Kenneth Branagh’s “Murder on the Orient Express” Is Everything You’d Hope, and Fear, It Would Be
After a preview screening of Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express, the studio asked me to write a concise reaction on a card. I ..
“Rocky Mountain Express”: Crossing Canada at Science Museum of Minnesota’s Omnitheater
Few large-format films are as lyrical as Rocky Mountain Express. Writer/director Stephen Low goes light on the didactics and lets his audi..
“Rough Night” Could Be Rougher
“My review,” said my girlfriend Dana as we walked out of Rough Night, “is that TV is officially better than movies.”
The new comedy was..
“The Mummy” Is Really Not What 2017 Needs
As we walked out of The Mummy, my friend Bob shrugged. “Everybody needs a universe now.”
It’s true: “cinematic universes” like the comp..
“Alien: Covenant” is the Perfect Anti-Escape Movie for Summer 2017
If Rogue One, with its prominent resistance motif, was the perfect SF franchise movie for 2016, the bleak Alien: Covenant might be the one..
“Journey to the South Pacific”: A Poignant Voyage at Science Museum of Minnesota Omnitheater
Journey to the South Pacific hits all the bases you expect from an Omnitheater film. There are the sweeping helicopter vistas, the underwa..