Movie review by Greg Carlson “Money Monster” is Jodie Foster’s first feature directorial effort since 2011’s curiosity “The Beaver,” blending elements of social satire, bomb vest thriller, and conspiracy drama – all of it unfolding in close to real time. Stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, reuniting in roles they can manage while asleep, play […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “Green Room,” writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s follow-up to the taut and terrific revenge thriller “Blue Ruin,” is one of the year’s best, an elegantly realized nightmare made with savvy and smarts. The simple logline – a touring punk quartet runs afoul of a gang of murderous, racist skinheads – belies the […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson At the Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Todd Solondz described drawing his inspiration for “Wiener-Dog” from an unlikely pair of cinematic hallmarks: Robert Bresson’s “Au Hasard Balthazar” (1966) and Joe Camp’s “Benji” (1974). Solondz’s movie, as dark, hilarious, and observant as any of the features in his deeply impressive filmography, does […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Following its Locarno Film Festival premiere in August of 2015, the great Chantal Akerman’s final work, “No Home Movie,” now makes its way to limited theatrical release and digital platforms in the United States. Currently viewable on Fandor – a fitting small screen residence – the nonfiction meditation featuring Akerman’s […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Werner Herzog shares another meditation on humanity in “Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World.” Lit with the master filmmaker’s blazing curiosity, the fascinating documentary ponders a wide variety of digital era conundrums and curiosities via ten chapters. Bouncing from topic to topic, “Lo and Behold” accomplishes the showman’s […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson At 63 years of age, Paul Reubens completes a minor miracle with the return of beloved, iconic manchild Pee-wee Herman, the eccentric creation whose appeal to grown-ups and children hit the bullseye in Tim Burton’s feature directorial debut “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” and on television in “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday” […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Craig Cobb, the white supremacist who purchased properties in Leith, North Dakota as part of a warped plan to establish a community for like-minded racial separatists, takes center stage in “Welcome to Leith,” recipient of the Bill Snyder Award for Documentary Filmmaking at the 2016 Fargo Film Festival. Principally examining […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson WARNING: The following review reveals key plot information. Read only if you have seen “The Witch” Near the thrilling, ecstatic conclusion of first-time feature director Robert Eggers’ “The Witch: A New-England Folktale,” our young protagonist Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), having endured unspeakable horrors, demands that family goat Black Phillip, a possible […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson As sharp and entertaining as the man it examines, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” is a substantive chronicle of one of the most influential television creators/producers in the history of the medium. While some degree of hagiography is inevitable on the heels of […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson In the days leading up to the nationwide release of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s “Hail, Caesar!,” clickbait slideshows far and wide competed to sort the oeuvre of the siblings. This week, “Slate” culture blogger Gabriel Roth filed a short article laying out a six-point theory to answer his title […]