Movie review by Greg Carlson When Microsoft’s subsidiary Xbox Entertainment Studios ceased operations, only one episode of the planned series “Signal to Noise” had been produced. The first cycle of the show was originally slated to include six documentaries on various aspects of videogame culture and the videogame industry. Screenwriter and director Zak Penn, known […]

Miniseries review by Greg Carlson WARNING: The following review reveals key plot information. Read only if you have seen “The Jinx.” The bombshell revelation that concludes Andrew Jarecki’s HBO series “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” occurs when the title subject uses the bathroom while wearing a hot mic. Hilariously, weirdly, but […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Alex Gibney’s documentary “Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief” uses author Lawrence Wright’s similarly titled book as the basis for a feature-length examination of the controversial organization known to many as the secretive, confusing and mysterious spiritual home of celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Legally recognized […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson WARNING: The following review reveals key plot information. Read only if you have seen “The D Train.” In their feature directing debut, “Yes Man” screenwriters Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel take a stab at blending sitcom-like laughs with social introspection, and the results are as confused as the emotional state […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Veteran documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen’s years of hard work pay off in “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” a stunning biographical portrait of the artist and musician. Morgen’s film, made with the full cooperation of Cobain’s survivors, includes Frances Bean Cobain as an executive producer. The director’s “all access pass” to […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Self-conscious, geeky coder Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) wins a contest to visit the sprawling private compound of his boss Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), a computer genius using his billions to pursue artificial intelligence in the form of an erotically charged machine named Ava (Alicia Vikander). Screenwriter/novelist Alex Garland makes his […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are New Yorkers Josh and Cornelia, married and rocketing through their forties. Childless and conflicted about it, the pressure from old friends/new parents Marina (Maria Dizzia) and Fletcher (Adam Horovitz) doesn’t exactly help. Josh is a documentary filmmaker whose current project has consumed nearly a […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson The erroneous report that Tokyo office worker Takako Konishi died near Detroit Lakes, Minnesota on November 15, 2001 looking for the money buried in the snow by Steve Buscemi’s Carl Showalter in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s “Fargo” forms the basis of David Zellner and Nathan Zellner’s haunting, original “Kumiko […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy engineers a jaw-dropping feature debut in “The Tribe,” a stylistic tour de force that juxtaposes the gorgeousness of cinematic execution against the horror of the narrative’s unrelentingly grim subject matter. Set in a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf, “The Tribe” follows new student Sergey (Grygoriy Fesenko) as […]