Movie review by Greg Carlson Kathryn Bigelow, to this day the only woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, makes an admirable if flawed attempt to fictionalize key components of Detroit’s 1967 12th Street Riot. Timed in part to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the incendiary actions that resulted in 43 deaths and […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Filmmaker Miguel Arteta is always worth watching, particularly when armed with a screenplay by Mike White. Their third collaboration, “Beatriz at Dinner,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is now making a modest theatrical run. Given the outcome of the November 2016 presidential election, the movie’s simple […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Luc Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” — touted as the costliest independent motion picture ever made — simultaneously melts eyeballs with its gorgeous visuals and narcotizes brains with its stiff dialogue and inert plotting. That frustrating combination places the movie in the company of countless post-”Star […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Joon-ho Bong’s “Okja,” currently on Netflix instant watch, competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where its premiere — beset by an early aspect ratio glitch — met with jeers and cheers. Critics have been mostly kind to the movie, although Stephanie Zacharek voiced a […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson For her work on “The Beguiled,” Sofia Coppola was awarded the best director honor at the Cannes Film Festival. She is only the second woman in that particular derby to do so in the festival’s seven decades, following Yuliya Solntseva’s 1961 nod for “The Chronicle of Flaming Years.” The title […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Less successful but no less important than “The Internet’s Own Boy,” “Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press” marks another David-versus-Goliath call to action in the filmography of writer-director Brian Knappenberger. Originally saddled with the even more cumbersome title “Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker and Trials of a Free Press,” […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Now available on Netflix following a lengthy film festival run, Alex Infascelli’s “S Is for Stanley” is required viewing for Kubrick obsessives and cinephiles. Based on Emilio D’Alessandro’s memoir “Stanley Kubrick and Me,” the documentary presents a chronological account of the relationship between the legendary filmmaker and the unassuming family […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson First-time feature filmmaker Cory Finley adapts his own play and comes up with one of the year’s most diabolically pleasurable movies in “Thoroughbreds,” a taut exercise in moral darkness. One of the most sure-footed debuts at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the movie is certain to attract a devoted audience […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Since 1941, Wonder Woman has been so many things to so many people that the decidedly mixed bag of her long-delayed big screen headliner comes as little surprise. Directed by Patty Jenkins following a disheartening gap of years since 2003’s “Monster,” “Wonder Woman” at least makes good on its promise […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson The prodigiously gifted team of collectors, archivists, programmers, and aficionados of movie madness operating as Cinefamily celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of George Lucas’ game-changing blockbuster with “Star Wars Nothing But Star Wars,” a wildly entertaining mixtape of gems, oddities, outtakes, clips, interviews, fan films, newscasts, commercials, public […]