AFI Fest 2024: 'Juror #2' Review

Clint Eastwood is 94 years old, and he's still making movies. Good movies. For Screen International, I reviewed Juror #2.

AFI Fest 2024: 'Here' Review

Robert Zemeckis' last two films were abominations. So I'm happy to say that Here is a step up, utilizing an intriguing formal conceit to look at a group of people over centuries who all live on the same spot of land in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, the director's worst tendencies betray him. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2023: 'Freud's Last Session' Review

Anthony Hopkins is Sigmund Freud in Freud's Last Session, a drama that imagines what might have happened if he had met C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) and debated the existence of God. (Freud was an atheist. Lewis was a Christian.) My review is here.

AFI Fest 2023: 'Leave the World Behind' Review

AFI Fest world premieres tend to be so-so affairs, but sometimes you get a gem. Case in point: I quite liked Leave the World Behind, which stars Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke as a married couple staying in a vacation rental who are accosted by two strangers (Mahershala Ali and Myha'la) who say that nearby New York has been hit by a crippling blackout. Are they to be trusted? That's part of the fun.

AFI Fest 2021: 'Swan Song' Review

Mahershala Ali gives not one but two good performances in Swan Song, a sci-fi drama about a dying man who decides to clone himself without telling his family, who have no idea of his terminal condition. You can read my Screen International review here.

AFI Fest 2021: 'Bruised' Review

Halle Berry stars in Bruised, which also is her directorial debut. She plays a former MMA fighter looking for a shot at redemption. If that sounds like a familiar story, well, that's part of the problem. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2021: 'Sing 2' Review

So much singing, so much dancing, so little resonance. For Screen, I reviewed Sing 2.

AFI Fest 2020: 'I'm Your Woman' Review

AFI Fest got underway this year with I'm Your Woman, the new film from director Julia Hart, who previously made Miss Stevens and Fast Color. Her latest isn't to the level of those previous movies, but I like how she keeps playing with genres to tell personal stories of characters facing existential crises. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2019: 'Richard Jewell' Review

Clint Eastwood does that thing he does with Richard Jewell, a biopic about the security guard who helped save lives during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing ... only to be suspected of the crime. Solid, professional, a little simplistic, but still affecting. You know the drill. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2019: 'Queen & Slim' Review

Queen & Slim is a bit uneven, but it definitely leaves an impression. The movie stars Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith as people going out on a first date. It doesn't go well, but then things get even worse when they accidentally kill a cop in self-defense. I reviewed this existential chase picture for Screen International.

AFI Fest 2018: 'Mary Queen of Scots' Review

Mary Queen of Scots is a movie that's more fun to talk to about than see. It tells the story of two queens, Elizabeth (Margot Robbie) and Mary (Saoirse Ronan), fighting for power, and also fighting to hold onto their crowns when scheming men all around them want that power for themselves. The movie is deeply just-good-enough. My review is live over at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2018: 'Bird Box' Review

Bird Box is going to have to endure endless comparisons to A Quiet Place, which won't help Susanne Bier's post-apocalyptic drama about a mother (Sandra Bullock) who lives in a world where people have to keep their eyes closed in order to stay alive. I reviewed the film for Screen International.

AFI Fest 2018: 'On the Basis of Sex' Review

On the Basis of Sex, a drama about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, premiered last night at AFI Fest. I saw it early, which I mention because I imagine that the audience last night was extra-emotional about the subject matter due to Ginsburg's recent fall. My view is that the movie is very well-meaning and sufficiently well-acted to overcome how basic its storytelling is. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2016: 'Patriots Day' Review

Mark Wahlberg and director Peter Berg hook up for a third time (after Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon) to tell the story of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath. Patriots Day again proves that Berg is one hell of an action filmmaker. But I'm starting to get tired of the formula around his true-life dramas. My Screen International review is right here.

AFI Fest 2016: 'The Comedian' Review

These days, whenever Robert De Niro shows some life in a performance, it's worth celebrating -- and how sad is that to say? Regardless, he's decently compelling in The Comedian, a comedy-drama where he plays a has-been stand-up comic. Weirdly, the movie is at its best when it's not about comedians -- far more enjoyable is his rapport with Leslie Mann, who's dynamite as a possible love interest. My review is live at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2016: 'Miss Sloane' Review

Jessica Chastain has a type of role that she seems to gravitate to. Whether it's Zero Dark Thirty or Crimson Peak, she likes playing characters who have a certain no-nonsense ferocity to them that can be pretty hypnotizing. Which is why I wasn't all that amazed by her steely portrayal of a ruthless D.C. lobbyist in Miss Sloane, a political thriller that's better when it's just being silly and juicy, throwing one outrageous twist after another at us. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2016: 'Rules Don't Apply' Review

Rules Don't Apply, Warren Beatty's first directorial effort since Bulworth, didn't do a lot for me. Yes, it's a pleasurable bauble, I suppose, but holy moley is it slight. A tale of Howard Hughes and two young people who get sucked into his orbit, the movie is a romantic triangle in which none of the three legs captivated me that much. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2015: 'The Big Short' Review

Sometimes, I walk out of a screening knowing I'm slightly overrating a film, overlooking its flaws, simply because I'm swept away in what's so good about that movie. Such is the case with The Big Short, which I thought was rather fabulous, even though I can recognize the parts that don't quite work. Director Adam McKay has made a ridiculously entertaining and wonderfully angry satire about the 2008 financial crisis. If you're still mad about how that all went down -- or, if you're like me and had forgotten just how mad it made you -- this film is singing your song. I reviewed The Big Short for Screen International.

AFI Fest 2015: 'Concussion' Review

Will Smith is the best part of Concussion, a good-not-great dramatization of the Nigerian doctor, Bennet Omalu, who uncovered the fact that the NFL was hiding what it knew about head trauma from its players. The movie muckrakes, but it also delivers a pretty sober condemnation of American values. My review is up at Screen International.

AFI Fest 2015: 'By the Sea' Review

Not to be confused with the forthcoming In the Heart of the Sea, By the Sea stars Brad Pitt and writer-director Angelina Jolie Pitt as a married couple on the rocks. This drama's publicity materials mention that "In its style and its treatment of themes of the human experience, By the Sea is reminiscent of European cinema and theater of the ’60s and ’70s—with its concentrated, lean storytelling style, spare dialogue and intimate, often disquieting atmosphere." Those are my kind of movies but, well, it's not the sort of thing one should actively brag about, especially if you can't quite pull it off. My review is up at Screen International.