John Krasinski is Jack Ryan. Not literally, of course. (Although I guess I don’t know what he does in his spare time.) But, when the man best known as ‘Jim’ from The Office was cast as the iconic character, I don’t know if anyone truly believed that he’d be up for the challenge. After all, at the role of…
Everyone wants to be a winner but not everyone knows how to do it. In The Underdoggs, Jaycen ‘Two Js’ Jennings (Snoop Dogg) is a retired (and ostracized) former NFL all-star that can’t seem to get his life together. Living alone without many friends, even Jaycen’s agent has grown tired of his selfish antics. After a…
In some ways, it’s hard to believe that Eddie Murphy has never made a holiday film. One of comedy’s greatest icons, one would expect that some form of holiday hijinx would exist in his repertoire. (Even Arnold Schwarzenegger has Jingle All the Way on his IMDb page.) Nevertheless, Candy Cane Lane marks Murphy’s first foray into Christmas cheer as…
Set in North Carolina, Silver Dollar Road gives voice to the Reels Family. Having lived near Silver Dollar Road for generations, the Reels have claim to its stunning waterfront property. However, due to complicated legal proceedings, the land is taken away from them by land developers. What follows is a horrifying tale of harassment, unjust imprisonment and…
Like Connor Roy of Succession, Boots Riley, creator of I’m a Virgo, has always been interested in politics. But unlike the fictional Roy, Riley has always put it into action through his work. For example, after the Oakland High School funding was cut in the 1980s, he organized a walkout with his friends. He made…
Sometimes, in order to fly, you have to let go of the wheel. On a Wing and a Prayer tells the true story of Doug White (Dennis Quaid), a pharmacist who likes his life and home to be in order. Married to Terri (Heather Graham) and father to two daughters, Doug and his family are shocked to…
For people who love characters in books, discovering a films or a TV series that presents them in the flesh may be welcome or feared?or both. So it was with hope and a bit of anxiety that my wife and I started watching Three Pines, based on the series of books by Louise Penny that…
?History isn?t made by guys like me.? Justice is often elusive when it involves those who have abused great power. Santiago Mitre?s film Argentina, 1985 is inspired by the true story of the prosecution of the military dictators that ruled Argentina in a violent period, during which many were kidnapped, tortured, killed, raped, or disappeared….
?Every man dies, not every man truly lives.? That truism has several variations and possible sources. Often it is through the nearness of death that we begin to see what life is really about. That is the concept that Hannah Marks explores in Don?t Make Me Go. Max Park (John Cho) is a single father…
?Forgiveness doesn?t heal the wounds of the past; it transforms them.? Lisa Azuelos?s I Love America is structured as a rom-com, but that is really just the pretty clothing put on to attract us to a story of grief and healing. In a sense it is a story of being lost and not knowing it….
