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,” […]