Generated by All in One SEO Pro v4.9.2, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.

# Silver Screen Capture

Stephen Michael Brown's Movie News and Reviews

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://silverscreencapture.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [“Obsession” an Enjoyably Audacious Feature from YouTuber Curry Barker](https://silverscreencapture.com/obsession-an-enjoyably-audacious-feature-from-youtuber-curry-barker/) - Stephen Michael Brown of Silver Screen Capture praises horror thriller film “Obsession” about a possessive modern relationship.
- [Accept “The Invite” for Two Generations, Two Couples, Zero Filters](https://silverscreencapture.com/accept-the-invite-for-two-generations-two-couples-zero-filters/) - Olivia Wilde serves delicious dark comedy as both actress and director in the ultimate chaotic dinner party of “The Invite.”
- [“Moana” 2026: Hook, Line and Stinker](https://silverscreencapture.com/moana-2026-hook-line-and-stinker/) - Had Disney trusted our imaginations instead of these atrocious visual effects, the “Moana” remake might have sailed much farther.
- [Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” a Deep-Think for a Deep-Fake World](https://silverscreencapture.com/spielbergs-disclosure-day-a-deep-think-for-a-deep-fake-world/) - Spielberg delivers a summer think-piece in “Disclosure Day.” Emily Blunt and the cinematography may be remembered more than the attempted woe factor of the finale.
- [Animated “Moana” Starts Strong](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-moana/) - Co-directors John Clements and Ron Musker have animated quests with more Herculean tasks, drawn crooning crabs making a bigger undersea splash and created caves with greater wonders than the adventure afoot in Moana (C+), their mostly adrift Disney Polynesian epic wannabe. It's quite enchanting to look at, at least for the first act; and newcomer
- [New Generation is Served Sublime Romcom “Voicemails for Isabelle” ](https://silverscreencapture.com/new-generation-is-served-sublime-romcom-voicemails-for-isabelle/) - “Voicemails for Isabelle” is one of the iconic films of summer 2026.
- [Lopez and Goldstein Fill a Few Policy Guideline Loopholes in “Office Romance” Lark](https://silverscreencapture.com/lopez-and-goldstein-fill-a-few-policy-guideline-loopholes-in-office-romance-lark/) - Plot holes meet policy guidelines in the watchable but barely credible Jennifer Lopez-Brett Goldstein romcom “Office Romance.” Coasting on charm, the leads maneuver just enough trope to hang themselves. In this mediocre offering on Netflix.
- [Prepare Your Gag Reel Reflex for Mixed Bag of “Jackass: Best and Last”](https://silverscreencapture.com/prepare-your-gag-reel-reflex-for-mixed-bag-of-jackass-best-and-last/) - For a movie with so many charged objects - from snakes to lip injectors to bungee cords to rectal projectiles and even a handsy robot - there’s only so much spark left for a fifth and presumed final installment in this notorious scatological and masochistic prank series. Jeff Tremaine’s Jackass: Best and Last (C) is
- [“The Death of Robin Hood” Sure Takes A While ](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-death-of-robin-hood-sure-takes-a-while/) - "The Death of Robin Hood" with High Jackman in the lead role is both a meditative deconstruction of the celebrated legend and an absolute slow-burn endurance test. The extremely violent first 20 minutes are followed by largely a bedridden tone poem.
- [“Supergirl” of 2026 is Experiencing Her Rebound Era](https://silverscreencapture.com/supergirl-of-2026-is-experiencing-her-rebound-era/) - The “Supergirl” of 2026 is fascinating and an effective centerpiece to the first superhero film in nearly a year. Milly Alcock’s star is born as her title character rebounds from trauma.
- [“Power Ballad” Asks Who’s the Baby Daddy of the Song Birthed by Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas](https://silverscreencapture.com/power-ballad-asks-whos-the-baby-daddy-of-the-song-birthed-by-paul-rudd-and-nick-jonas/) - Director John Carney’s winning acting pair of Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas — plus a global hit song — makes a successful lyrical lark out of a copyright custody battle.
- [Unsettling Sleeper Horror Film “Backrooms” Doesn’t Fully Mine the Store](https://silverscreencapture.com/unsettling-sleeper-horror-film-backrooms-doesnt-fully-mine-the-store/) - “Backrooms” is based on a YouTube series by Kane Parsons, who directs and helps compose for the big-screen event. It’s a mystery box set in a big box but doesn’t really know what aisle and shelf it’s working with to deploy its talented cast. The atmosphere is much better than the story goods.
- [Silver Screen Capture’s Summer Movie Preview 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/silver-screen-captures-summer-movie-preview-2026/) - What movies come out this summer? Silver Screen Capture shares 33 anticipated movies in the theatre and streaming for summer 2026. Stephen Michael Brown previews these 33 movies on the Silver Screen Capture site.
- [“Toy Story 5” Teaches Kids to Play Nice in Screen-Addicted Age](https://silverscreencapture.com/toy-story-5-teaches-kids-to-play-nice-in-screen-addicted-age/) - “Toy Story 5” comes most alive in its unlikely issues debate about timeless toys versus addictive technology.
- [“Tuner” a Phenomenal Thriller for Grown-Ups](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-review-tuner-a-phenomenal-thriller-for-grown-ups/) - Acclaimed Canadian documentarian Daniel Roher comes out of the gate with a corker of a narrative feature, Tuner (A), an absorbing crime/drama/thriller starring Leo Woodall as a gifted piano tuner with hypersensitive hearing who discovers he can use his auditory skills to crack safes, pulling him into a criminal underworld. Dustin Hoffman (great to see
- [Robbin’ Hood Girls are a Stitch in Fashionable Maximalist Meta-Comedy “I Love Boosters”](https://silverscreencapture.com/robbin-hood-girls-are-a-stitch-in-fashionable-maximalist-meta-comedy-i-love-boosters/) - Stephen Michael Brown of Silver Screen Capture absolutely loved the complex and stylish work of filmmaker Boots Riley in “I Love Boosters.” Kiki Palmer is a knockout in the lead of this meta-comedy about the fashion world.
- [“Mandalorian and Grogu” Bad Enough to Prompt a Galactic Rebellion Against Franchise](https://silverscreencapture.com/mandalorian-and-grogu-bad-enough-to-prompt-a-galactic-rebellion-against-franchise/) - “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is a misbegotten space adventure of the first order. So bankrupt the Trade Federation guys should start their tax write-off procedures.
- [”The Breadwinner” a Fun Debut for Popular Comedian](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-breadwinner-a-fun-debut-for-popular-comedian/) - If you enjoy comedian Nate Bergatze, his feature film debut in Eric Appel’s family comedy The Breadwinner (B) is certain to be a fun, old-fashioned, squeaky-clean romp. Although ostensibly a bit retrograde, borrowing from the premise of ‘80s film Mr. Mom, this movie makes the most of the genial nature and observational humor of its
- [Murder, Ewe Wrote!  “The Sheep Detectives” Is Shear Delight ](https://silverscreencapture.com/murder-ewe-wrote-the-sheep-detectives-is-shear-delight/) - Silver Screen Capture’s Stephen Michael Brown highly recommends “The Sheep Detectives” as a thinking person’s family film as well as an engrossing mystery. It is one of the best movies of 2026.
- [ “Is God Is” a Soulful and Surprising Revenge Quest ](https://silverscreencapture.com/is-god-is-a-soulful-and-surprising-revenge-quest/) - Writer/director Aleshea Harris adapts her acclaimed play of the same name into the assured feature film Is God Is (B) about twins played by Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, both in riveting performances, traveling cross-country from the Deep Dirty South to California chic upon request of their mom (Vivica A. Fox) to exact revenge on
- ["The Devil Wears Prada 2" Replaces Snark with Heart](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-devil-wears-prada-2-replaces-snark-with-heart/) - Stephen Michael Brown of Silver Screen Capture reviews the 20th Century Fox sequel "The Devil Wears Prada 2," which replaces snark with heart. It's an anticipated fashion team-up with fewer laughs than its predecessor but ultimately a pleasing female empowerment story.
- [“Michael” Biopic a Glossy Moonwalk Through Troubled Singer’s Triumphs](https://silverscreencapture.com/michael-biopic-a-glossy-moonwalk-through-troubled-singers-triumphs/) - This movie reviewer bucks the trend of a critical chorus with a rave review for the Michael Jackson biopic. Anton Fuqua and the team of filmmakers behind “Michael” (2026) have made a sturdy and engaging biopic that stops short of covering the singer’s most controversial years.
- [“Project Hail Mary” is Peak Space Craft, Popcorn Flick Comfort Food for the Soul](https://silverscreencapture.com/project-hail-mary-is-peak-space-craft-popcorn-flick-comfort-food-for-the-soul/) - Two Hollywood talents helm a mystery, a sci-fi adventure and a moving human drama packaged in one extraordinarily ambitious and entertaining opus. Co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary (A+) stars Ryan Gosling as a man who finds himself alone on a spacecraft light years from earth and must summon the bravery and
- [”Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie” is The Best](https://silverscreencapture.com/nirvanna-the-band-the-show-the-movie-is-the-best/) - Canadian comedy scales new heights of creativity in Matt Johnson’s rollicking and raucous Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (A-), chronicling a pair of fictionalized musicians (the manic Johnson plus straight man Jay McCarrol) endeavoring to land a gig at a nightclub in their beloved Toronto hometown, and no highjinks, homages or holler-backs are
- [“Third” a Euphoric Domestic Comedy Debut at Atlanta Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/third-a-triumphant-debut-at-atlanta-film-festival/) - This wish fulfillment dramedy that premiered at Atlanta Film Festival is a rapturous success. Alexander Parkinson’s “Third” is fun, insightful and — dare I say — just the sublime spark to stimulate the doldrums of domesticity. 
- [50th Atlanta Film Festival Includes World Premiere Screenings, Starry Gala](https://silverscreencapture.com/50th-atlanta-film-festival-kicks-off-next-week-along-with-starry-gala/) - The 50th Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) unveiled its highly anticipated opening and closing Night selections, along with a slate of legacy screenings and special presentations for its landmark anniversary edition. The 2026 festival will take place in person April 23 - May 3 at the historic Plaza and Tara Theatres, followed by virtual screenings from
- [Solemn “If I Go Will They Miss Me" Gracefully Explores Post-Prison Paternity](https://silverscreencapture.com/solemn-if-i-go-will-they-miss-me-gracefully-explores-post-prison-paternity/) - A hopeful gem from Sundance presented at the Atlanta Film Festival en route to a fall 2026 wider release, If I Go Will They Miss Me (B), directed by Walter Thompson-Hernández, is a lyrical look at the hopes, dreams and interconnectedness of parents and their progeny. Bodhi Dell gives an authentic performance as the film’s
- [The Vow is in Free Fall as “The Drama” Unfolds](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-vow-is-in-free-fall-as-the-drama-unfolds/) - The director of “Dream Scenario” should have slept on his follow-up premise. “The Drama” is about a wedding ceremony derailed by a revelation. Zendaya and Robert Pattinson don’t stand a chance against the stubborn script.
- [Hot Dam! “Hoppers” Places Nature’s Engineers at Center of Habitat Showdown](https://silverscreencapture.com/hot-dam-hoppers-places-natures-engineers-at-center-of-habitat-showdown/) - The Avatar movies aren’t the only cautionary tales to swoop into “save the whales” territory, with a new full-length animated feature film showcasing eco-warriors eager to pounce on a beaver protection bandwagon. It’s not as full-on funny or immediately memorable as some of the top-shelf Disney-Pixar films, but Daniel Chong’s Hoppers (B) centers a creative
- [Feature Story: Planning a Themed Watch Party - The Masters Golf Tournament](https://silverscreencapture.com/feature-story-planning-a-themed-watch-party-the-masters-golf-tournament/) - On the heels of the Oscars, there's another big global event that will bring friends together. This article shares how to plan a themed watch party around the Masters Tournament, blending golf, gear, food and the movies.
- [“A Mess of Memories” a Joyous and Cathartic Feature Debut](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-mess-of-memories-a-joyous-and-cathartic-feature-debut/) - It’s always delightful to witness a new take on a classic trope, in this case the ensemble dramedy, told with a sharp and distinctive new voice on the film scene. When three sisters reunite in their childhood home to confront a hoarding mother in writer/director Ebony Blanding’s A Mess of Memories (B+), there’s an ample
- [“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” the Plumbers’ Crack of Studio Sequels](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-super-mario-galaxy-movie-the-plumbers-crack-of-studio-sequels/) - Rarely do I see a film and state “AI could have probably written a more compelling concept,” but here’s Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (D) being an aimless mess and a shameless cash grab with no consequences but critical scorn. The titular Italian brothers of the video game franchise must
- [Flashback Review: "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006) is a Sassy Clash of the Sartorial Titans](https://silverscreencapture.com/flashback-review-the-devil-wears-prada-2006-is-a-sassy-clash-of-the-sartorial-titans/) - Starting a new job can be savage. Based on Lauren Weisberger’s popular roman à clef, David Frankel's workplace comedy The Devil Wears Prada (B+) follows aspiring journalist Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) as she embarks on a demanding assistant gig to magazine fashion editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), a character modeled after Vogue's Anna Wintour. The
- [Sashay, Brontë! In Praise of Fennell’s Fashionable, Foreboding “Wuthering Heights”](https://silverscreencapture.com/sashay-bronte-in-praise-of-fennells-fashionable-forboding-wuthering-heights/) - Emerald Fennell’s stylized retelling of Wuthering Heights (A-) paints with all the colors of her whim: statuesque leads involved in constant craving, outrageous bodice ripping romance, can’t-look-away couture costumes, an ultra-glam soundscape, twisted minor characters, luminous colors melting off the edges of the screen, a bodily fluid or two too many and very little fidelity
- [“Scream 7” Sees Original Screenwriter Take Stab at Directing](https://silverscreencapture.com/scream-7-sees-original-screenwriter-take-stab-at-directing/) - Original franchise scribe Kevin Williamson steps up to a writer/director role in the saga’s first wholly mundane entry, Scream 7 (C). For both the filmmaker and his returning leading lady Neve Campbell, the exercise is oddly one of restraint, as if it’s more important to show they can right the ship of a successful formula
- [Supernatural “Sinners” Showcases Commanding Coogler ](https://silverscreencapture.com/spoiler-free-review-supernatural-sinners-showcases-commanding-coogler/) - This supernatural action-horror film "Sinners" reunites Michael B. Jordan in a dual role with frequent collaborator director Ryan Coogler.
- [Trilith Cinemas Posts Showtimes as Trilith LIVE Rolls Out New Entertainment Complex](https://silverscreencapture.com/trilith-cinemas-posts-showtimes-as-trilith-live-rolls-out-new-entertainment-complex/) - Trilith Cinemas opens at new Trilith LIVE event venue.
- [“How Can We Be Lovers” If We Can’t Experience the “Diane Warren: Relentless” Documentary Together?](https://silverscreencapture.com/how-can-we-be-lovers-if-we-cant-witness-the-diane-warren-relentless-documentary-together/) - You won’t want to miss a thing in this pop song filled documentary ode to one of the world’s most successful hit-makers. Director Bess Kargman’s documentary Diane Warren: Relentless (A-) depicts a fascinating woman who was born to be a songwriting phenomenon. Famously talked about during nearly every Oscars season including this one for her
- [ENZO Rolling Out Red Carpet Glamour at GTC Trilith Cinemas for Third Annual Viewing Party](https://silverscreencapture.com/enzo-rolling-out-red-carpet-glamour-at-gtc-trilith-cinemas-for-third-annual-viewing-party/) - Greater Atlanta’s signature Oscars viewing party is held in the Town at Trilith March 15, 2026 at GTC Trilith Cinemas hosted by ENZO.
- [Savage Good Time! Raimi’s “Send Help” His Best Work in Years](https://silverscreencapture.com/raimis-send-help-his-best-work-in-years/) - “Send Help” is a savage success - “9 to 5” meets “Misery” on a “Castaway” island curated with splattery glee by Sam Raimi. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien are masterful in this battle of the sexes.
- [In Heartfelt, Melodic “Song Sung Blue" Biopic, Jackman and Hudson Have Never Been Better](https://silverscreencapture.com/heartfelt-song-sung-blue-is-an-ideal-movie-to-recommend-to-your-parents/) - Dueling piano players, hit makers of the karaoke leaderboard and all-out tribute bands rarely get their proper due in the limelight. But get ready for the latter musical misfits to enjoy cinematic comeuppance. The true life story of two down-on-their-luck musicians who perform in a Neil Diamond cover band in grunge-era Milwaukee, Craig Brewer’s Song
- [Submerged Questions About Israel Surfaced by Strong-Willed Kid at Center of “The Sea”](https://silverscreencapture.com/submerged-questions-about-israel-surfaced-by-strong-willed-kid-at-center-of-the-sea/) - Anyone with kids will understand how stubborn they can be to get what they want. Shai Carmeli-Pollak’s The Sea (B+) explores the very fraught geopolitical complexities in Israel through the eyes of a tween Palestinian boy named Khaled who just wants to wade in the waters of the Mediterranean while he’s young. Unfortunately the beach
- [“No Other Choice” Portrays the Dark Side of Job Search ](https://silverscreencapture.com/no-other-choice-portrays-the-dark-side-of-job-search/) - Lee Byung-hun lends a delicious lead performance of dark desperation as a father and gardener who finds himself on the outs in a career crossroads in Park Chan-wook’s sneaky satire No Other Choice (B+). The antihero at the film’s center sets violent targets on his competitors for a coveted job, and the movie keeps upping
- [Fascinating Sundance Documentary “Soul Patrol” Reunites Elite Black Vietnam Soldiers 50 Years Later](https://silverscreencapture.com/fascinating-sundance-documentary-soul-patrol-reunites-elite-black-vietnam-soldiers-50-years-later/) - J.M. Harper’s Soul Patrol is a moving documentary about a valiant recon team in Vietnam comprised of Black soldiers reuniting a half century later.
- [Sundance Dramedy "Chasing Summer" Showcases Talents of Comedienne Iliza Shlesinger](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-dramedy-chasing-summer-showcases-talents-of-comedienne-iliza-shlesinger/) - Based on her spirited original screenplay, comedienne Iliza Shlesinger stars as a global humanitarian licking her own wounds after losing both her job and her love interest in Josephine Decker’s joyful dramedy "Chasing Summer." When her character retreats to her Texas hometown, she experiences a kind of Millennial coming-of-age that starts screwball and evolves to sentimental.
- ["How to Divorce During the War" Gracefully Examines Relationship Rifts Adjacent to Ukraine Conflict](https://silverscreencapture.com/how-to-divorce-during-the-war-gracefully-examines-relationship-rifts-adjacent-to-ukraine-conflict/) - Award-winning director Andrius Blaževičius delivers a graceful glimpse at relationships unraveling against the backdrop of Ukraine conflict. This was a standout movie at Sundance Festival 2026.
- [Sundance Doc "Birds of War" Splices POV of Two Powerfully Connected Witnesses to History](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-doc-birds-of-war-splices-pov-of-two-powerfully-connected-witnesses-to-historysundance-doc-birds-of-war/) - The grand tradition of a couple finding love against the backdrop of history continues in the nearly decade and a half chronicled in a new Sundance premiere documentary. Birds of War, co-directed by its subjects Abd Alkater and Janay Boulos, follows their love and war story.
- [Sundance Film "The Musical" Thinks It's More Subversive Than It Is](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-film-the-musical-thinks-its-more-subversive-than-it-is/) - In Giselle Bonilla’s feature debut "The Musical," Will Brill plays a frustrated playwright and middle school teacher who hatches the perfect plan to exact revenge on Rob Lowe’s character, the principal who has wronged him. The game plan seems foolproof: ruin the school’s chances of winning the prestigious Blue Ribbon of Academic Excellence by staging an inappropriate and chaotic school play.
- ["Hanging by a Wire" Chronicles Aerial Feats of Courage](https://silverscreencapture.com/hanging-by-a-wire-chronicles-aerial-feats-of-courage/) - Mohammed Ali Naqvi’s documentary "Hanging by a Wire" showcases valiant rescue efforts to save eight schoolchildren trapped mid-wire nearly 1,000 feet over a ravine in a daily use cable car in a remote part of the Himalayan foothills.
- [Sundance Premiere “Carousel” (2026) Makes You Pine for More Chris Pine](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-premiere-carousel-2026-makes-you-pine-for-more-chris-pine/) - Viewed as part of Virtual Sundance Film Festival 2026 Despite clearly positive intentions, Rachel Lambert’s domestic drama Carousel (C) is a whole lot of the same. It’s nice to see Chris Pine in a dramatic role: here he portrays a sad dad coping with changes in the physician clinic where he works, with an anxious
- [“28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” Brings Character to Dystopian Times](https://silverscreencapture.com/28-years-later-the-bone-temple-brings-character-to-dystopian-times/) - What happens when a battle-tested boy, an isolated physician, a naked and sedated alpha zombie and a gang of miscreants encounter one another for the second part of an inventive film trilogy in a long-running series? It’s bloody interesting, when that film installment is Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (B). Ralph Fiennes’
- [“Marty Supreme” is One Glorious Prattle After Another](https://silverscreencapture.com/marty-supreme/) - Timothy Chalamet’s titular character in Josh Safdie’s fresh, funny and mightily maximalist Marty Supreme (A) is ostensibly a champion table tennis player in 1950s America, but more than that, he’s a big talker of the first order. In successive sequences of powerful propulsion, the ambitious young man asserts one prattle after another in his pursuit
- [A.I. Thriller “Mercy” an Early Contender for Worst Film of 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-i-thriller-mercy-an-early-contender-for-worst-film-of-2026/) - Strap onto your seats, not out of a promise of actual cinematic intensity, but because only literal harnesses or handcuffs will keep anticipatory viewers sufficiently locked in for this misbegotten A.I. justice thriller. Timur Bekmambetov’s Mercy (F) tethers career-worst performances by both Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson to a belabored plot, accompanied by a constant
- [“A Private Life” Notable Mainly for Jodie Foster Speaking French](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-private-life-notable-mainly-for-jodie-foster-speaking-french/) - Jodie Foster plays an idiosyncratic American psychiatrist in Paris and flexes her remarkable language skills in Rebecca Zlotowski’s largely unremarkable dramatic thriller A Private Life (C). While the protagonist’s tightly knit world begins to unravel after the sudden death of a patient, the viewer can’t help but contemplate the lead actress in full French-speaking mode
- [Brazilian Film “The Secret Agent” is Entertaining, Subversive](https://silverscreencapture.com/brazilian-film-secret-agent-is-entertaining-subversive/) - Kleber Mendonca Filho’s The Secret Agent (B+) is a B-movie with a purpose. Even its title is a disguise for what it actually is. The movie follows a former professor played by a towering Wagner Moura who is caught in the political turmoil of the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship, attempting to flee
- [Bard to Tears: “Hamnet” a Showcase for Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal](https://silverscreencapture.com/bard-to-tears-hamnet-a-showcase-for-jessie-buckley-and-paul-mescal/) - Take one iambic pentameter for your sadness, and call me in the morning. Set in the Elizabethan era, Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet (C) depicts two parents grieving the loss of a child in very different ways. Jessie Buckley offers a raw and harrowing reaction; and Paul Mescal, who plays William Shakespeare, addresses his sadness more obliquely
- [Will Arnett is a Stand-Up Kinda Guy in “Is This Thing On?” ](https://silverscreencapture.com/will-arnett-is-a-stand-up-kinda-guy-in-is-this-thing-on/) - In a year with legitimate soaring music in a film set in the music industry (the rap face-off plus the pop songstress finale in Highest 2 Lowest) and moving film-within-a-film (the virtuoso director character in Sentimental Value lensing truly moving footage), Director Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? (C) manages to make stand-up comedy look
- [Twisty Thriller “The Housemaid” is Often Clever But Overstays Welcome](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-housemaid/) - A trio of spellbinding performances anchors a sometimes successful new domestic thriller, Paul Feig’s The Housemaid (B-). The twisty film follows a young woman with a troubled past, played by a deadpan and eerily relatable Sydney Sweeney, hired as the live-in help for a wealthy family, the delightfully cuckoo Amanda Seyfried and smoldering hubbie Brandon
- [PTA Has a Lot on the Mind in “One Battle After Another”](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-dissenting-opinion-on-one-battle-after-another-or-how-to-make-an-american-bomb/) - Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has honed a singular cottage filmmaking industry lending a sympathetic gaze to insular groups such as the denizens of the Hollywood hills, religious cultists, oil tycoons and fashion house provocateurs. Now he leverages the lives of an interlocking series of domestic terrorists to make points about humanity and society, with mixed
- [“Zootopia 2” Pushes City Limits of Adequate Anthropomorphic Comedy ](https://silverscreencapture.com/zootopia-2-pushes-city-limits-of-adequate-anthropomorphic-comedy/) - There goes Disney again with the preposterous notion that all should be equal; that’s right, follow-up features generally aren’t. Jared Bush and Byron Howard’s Zootopia 2 (B-) poses the premise that second-class citizen reptiles should be regarded equally in the pantheon of all-animal new urbanism. The spry duo of Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman returns
- [“Avatar: Fire and Ash” a Slow Burn While Still Treading Water](https://silverscreencapture.com/avatar-fire-and-ash-a-slow-burn-while-still-treading-water/) - Those wondering if the third film in the saga about clashes between humans and blue alien creatures would live up to the epic stature of its predecessors can hold their collective Pandora breath. Despite a lush rendered environment, James Cameron’s latest opus Avatar: Fire and Ash (C) is just as head-scratching in its mediocrity as
- [Golden Globes to Showcase Iconic Film Acting 1/11/26](https://silverscreencapture.com/golden-globes-to-showcase-iconic-acting-and-filmmaking-creativity-1-11-26/) - The Golden Globes are Sunday, January 11, 2026 - with anxiety and monsters as big themes.
- [Indie Darling “Sorry, Baby” Puts a Warm, Wry Filter on Trauma](https://silverscreencapture.com/indie-darling-sorry-baby-puts-a-warm-wry-filter-on-trauma/) - Eva Victor announces her arrival on the independent cinema scene as sardonic writer, star and director of the tragicomic Sundance sensation Sorry, Baby (B+); and her raw, fragmented plot structure makes for a sneakily emotional knockout of an experience, set in and around New England academia. Given much of the narrative covers heavy subject matter,
- [Seyfried & Glory: Actress Elevates Unconventional “The Testament of Ann Lee”](https://silverscreencapture.com/seyfried-glory-actress-elevates-unconventional-the-testament-of-ann-lee/) - Amanda Seyfried has been an unconventional film presence throughout her career and sinks her everything into the controversial title subject of Mona Fastvold’s historical epic The Testament of Ann Lee (B+). The actress elevates her every screen sequence as a 16th century pioneer of The Shakers religion, from awakening to ascent to persecution and more.
- [“Sirat” Marches to its Own Hypnotic Beat](https://silverscreencapture.com/sirat-marches-to-its-own-hypnotic-beat/) - A peculiar mix of existential road trip journey and deeply human dystopian drama, this year’s international film contender from Spain is a curiosity made more memorable through the trance of its soundscape. Oliver Laxe’s transfixing drama Sirat (B-) is a puzzling tale set in Morocco rave culture and follows desert denizens through a series of
- [Gunn’s Inventive “Superman” a Maximalist Mixtape for Comic Book Movie Fans](https://silverscreencapture.com/james-gunns-inventive-superman-a-maximalist-mixtape-for-comic-book-movie-fans/) - Under writer/director James Gunn’s singular guidance, the new 2025 "Superman" is wildly inventive and will keep viewers leaning in breathlessly, blissfully to trace its lofty legend. In keeping with his tuned-in pop cultural instincts, the auteur tenders a mighty mixtape of everything currently intriguing him about comic books, comic book movies and life in the (mis)Information Age, and we as viewers are the beneficiaries of his visionary and occasionally cheeky gifts (including a flying pup and pocket universes).
- [“28 Years Later” Brilliantly Bites Back](https://silverscreencapture.com/28-years-later-brilliantly-bites-back/) - Danny Boyle reclaims the director’s chair for the third entry of the dystopian future saga he originated with writer Alex Garland in which brave British citizens fend off hoards of “rage virus” infected humans (don’t call ‘em zombies!). Although still made with urgent, kinetic energy and exciting chases with graphic kills, 28 Years Later (B+)
- [Celine Song’s Smart “Materialists" a Heavenly Match for Hollywood Trio in NYC](https://silverscreencapture.com/celine-songs-smart-materialists-a-heavenly-match-for-hollywood-trio-in-nyc/) - Celine Song delivers a triumphant sophomore effort.
- [Big-Screen Spectacle “F1” Follows Formula with Precision Pitt Stops](https://silverscreencapture.com/big-screen-spectacle-f1-follows-formula-with-precision-pitt-stops/) - Director Joseph Kosinski generally elevates the saga of another aging maverick with a need for speed in the polished sports adventure F1 (B+) set amidst the globetrotting Grand Prix of the Formula One World Championship, with its glam characters connected at the hip to the fastest regulated road-course racing cars on earth. Brad Pitt is
- ["Kpop Demon Hunters" All the Rage](https://silverscreencapture.com/kpop-demon-hunters-all-the-rage/) - The musical fantasy "Kpop Demon Hunters" earns a "B." It is largely an engaging and culturally rooted film about a trio of female singers who moonlight as monster assassins
- [Hey Ya, Frankonia/Outcast: “Frankenstein” Format Presents Identity Issues](https://silverscreencapture.com/hey-ya-frankonia-outcast-netflix-frankenstein-two-chapter-format-has-identity-issues/) - Netflix “Frankenstein” is framed in two chapters - one part binge, the other part cringe. You, the viewer, may gravitate to one part over the other. It’s still a beauty to behold.
- [Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” Celebrates Artistry in Purest Form](https://silverscreencapture.com/linklaters-nouvelle-vague-celebrates-artistry-in-purest-form/) - Indie auteur Richard Linklater sets the table for a French New Wave banquet complete with dishy performances, select servings of asides, a main course with temporal tastings, napkin scrawls as spontaneous cues and signature jump-cutlery in a tasty treat for cinephiles, Nouvelle Vague (A-). Expect to sleuth diligently on the Netflix menu come November for
- [Norwegian Family Drama “Sentimental Value” One of Year’s Best](https://silverscreencapture.com/norwegian-family-drama-sentimental-value-one-of-years-best/) - Multiple generations have difficulty communicating except through their art in Joachim Trier’s methodical and exhilarating drama Sentimental Value (A). Set in and around a charming legacy family home in Norway, the film follows a fractured relationship between an acclaimed movie director (Stellan Skarsgard) and his two estranged daughters played by Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter
- [Zach Cregger Explores Another House of Whacks in Masterful “Weapons”](https://silverscreencapture.com/zach-cregger-explores-another-house-of-whacks-in-masterful-weapons/) - As horror movie writer/director, Zach Cregger is best known for depicting the underbelly of a double-booked vacation rental home, but his widening scope to the milieu of eerie suburbia makes for a next fascinating filmmaking frontier. There goes the neighborhood in the suspense thriller Weapons (A) as the multi-hyphenate auteur (he’s also a very good
- [Give Yourself Over to “Train Dreams,” Now on Netflix ](https://silverscreencapture.com/give-yourself-over-to-train-dreams-now-on-netflix/) - This is the film that finally answers the question, “If a tree falls down in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?” In this case, it makes both a sound and a statement. Gorgeously shot, gingerly paced and sneakily profound, Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams (A) stars
- [“Wake Up Dead Man” a Mid Mystery in “Knives Out” Franchise](https://silverscreencapture.com/wake-up-dead-man-a-mid-mystery-in-knives-out-franchise/) - With a game all-star cast ranging from Glenn Close to Andrew Scott to Daniel Craig as the series’ intrepid detective, Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (B-) fixes its grimacing gaze on a peculiar place of worship where Josh O’Connor and Josh Brolin as warring priests have a spiritual score to
- [Emperor’s New Film: George Clooney Uninspired in “Jay Kelly” Vanity Project](https://silverscreencapture.com/emperors-new-film-george-clooney-uninspired-in-jay-kelly-vanity-project/) - You can call it playing a character “similar to himself” all you want, but George Clooney isn’t stretching all that much as a veteran actor regretting some of his choices in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly (C). To flee an incident likely to get him bad press, the protagonist and his longtime manager (Adam Sandler) step
- [The Real Housewitches of Oz Struggle in  Inferior Sequel “Wicked: For Good”](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-real-housewitches-of-oz-eek-out-inferior-sequel-wicked-for-good/) - Director Jon M. Chu’s hat trick seemed to be nimbly splitting a Broadway musical’s two acts into a double whammy of film spectaculars. Trouble is, the first film was packed with confectionary creativity and a veritable bandstand of bops, so stretching this half adaptation into a sprawling opus simply enhanced the delight. The second installment
- [Kathryn Bigelow Lets Nobody Off the Hook in Powerful Nuclear Cautionary Tale “A House of Dynamite”](https://silverscreencapture.com/kathryn-bigelow-lets-nobody-off-the-hook-in-powerful-nuclear-cautionary-tale-a-house-of-dynamite/) - A discomforting topic in an obtuse format unfocused on any single character for long, punctuated with ambiguous outcomes, seems a formula for frustration; and yet Kathryn Bigelow imprints her signature hyper-realism with panache onto a fictional but not far-fetched situation, and the result - A House of Dynamite (B+) - is an intense, often riveting
- [“Rental Family” Keeps Brendan Fraser on a Short Lease ](https://silverscreencapture.com/rental-family-keeps-brendan-fraser-on-a-short-lease/) - Despite a promising premise, Hikari’s Rental Family (C) proves an undercooked and overly sentimental bunch of hokum. Brendan Fraser plays an American commercial and character actor working in Japan who is recruited by an unusual talent agency to portray fictional people in real life to compensate for something that’s missing. He’s like an emotional support
- [“It Was Just an Accident” a Powerful Iranian Parable](https://silverscreencapture.com/it-was-just-an-accident-a-powerful-iranian-parable/) - Writer/director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (A-) traces a chance encounter at a body shop between two men in modern Iran who may or may not share fraught history; and as other characters enter the fray too, memories of the background between the two primary men become even more blurry. This is like
- [Misbegotten Cautionary Tale “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” Pounds Its Themes with a Mallet ](https://silverscreencapture.com/misbegotten-cautionary-tale-if-i-had-legs-id-kick-you-pounds-its-themes-with-a-mallet/) - Rose Byrne plays a beleaguered mom in Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (C-), but its protracted, insistent vibe of showing the horrors of motherhood will likely prove an endurance test for audiences in the process. Bronstein makes some big swings such as never actually showing the main character’s daughter, instead representing
- [Absurdist Conspiracy Curiosity “Bugonia” Features Standout Plemmons, Stone](https://silverscreencapture.com/absurdist-conspiracy-curiosity-bugonia-features-standout-plemmons-stone/) - Folks on polar opposites of debates these days find themselves talking over and past one another with such gusto and conviction, that one individual could perceive an enemy is actually an alien invader. Few forces of nature can burst these righteous, respective belief bubbles. The Yorgos Lanthimos-directed Bugonia (C+) centers on two conspiracy-obsessed men (Jesse
- [“Shelby Oaks” Squanders Promising Found Footage Horror Premise](https://silverscreencapture.com/shelby-oaks-squanders-promising-found-footage-horror-premise/) - Film review YouTube personality turned writer/director/producer Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks (C) gets points for chutzpah; it’s one thing to critique others’ movies and another thing altogether to conceive of and mobilize for one’s own full debut motion picture production. The film does a good job setting up the premise of a missing paranormal/occult documentary crew
- [Career-Best Ethan Hawke Presides Over Bittersweet, Lyrical, Valedictory Valentine “Blue Moon” ](https://silverscreencapture.com/career-best-ethan-hawke-presides-over-bittersweet-lyrical-valedictory-valentine-blue-moon/) - In “Blue Moon,” Ethan Hawke gives a transformational performance as acerbic Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s tribute to a man before his time.
- [Cerebral “Springsteen” Film a Fascinating Anti-Crowdpleaser](https://silverscreencapture.com/cerebral-springsteen-film-a-fascinating-anti-crowdpleaser/) - Hollywood of late is so dead-set against presenting a typical “Behind the Music” style biopic treatment of its legends that it often feels like tough medicine is being administered instead of rousing entertainment, and this modern elixir of choice leveraged to tackle the subject of Bruce Springsteen is fittingly far from formulaic. Writer/director Scott Cooper’s
- [As “Roofman,” Channing Tatum is Prancing on the Ceiling with Endearing Performance](https://silverscreencapture.com/as-roofman-channing-tatum-prances-on-the-ceiling-with-treasure-trove-of-comic-talent/) - Equal parts chewing the scenery and emoting with grace, a modern matinee idol has matured into an ideal role for his talents. - a true step-up, if you will. Derek Cianfrance’s true crime comedy Roofman (B+), so named because of its antihero’s penchant for entering his retail robbery targets from above, is a tour de force for Channing Tatum in the title performance.
- [Found Footage Film “The Perfect Neighbor” Applies Inventive Approach to Topical Issue ](https://silverscreencapture.com/found-footage-film-the-perfect-neighbor-applies-inventive-approach-to-topical-issue/) - “The Perfect Neighbor,” now available on Netflix, is an absorbing true crime documentary told through found footage on police bodycams.
- [Jenny from the Cell Block Intrigues in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" Musical Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/jenny-from-the-cell-block-intrigues-in-kiss-of-the-spider-woman-musical-film/) - Translating a stage musical based on a non-musical movie back into a film musical is a tricky translation (musicalized movies of The Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray and The Color Purple largely worked, while 2005’s The Producers was a slog). The 2025 film Kiss of the Spider Woman (C+), directed by Bill Condon and based
- [“The Smashing Machine” Not Quite a Knockout](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-smashing-machine-not-quite-a-knockout/) - This is a movie in which acting itself is a combat sport. Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt offer transformative performances, but it’s not always clear to what end in Benny Safdie’s real-life mixed martial arts fighting origin story The Smashing Machine (C+). Johnson plays MMA fighter Mark Kerr at the plateau of career success while
- [Grim and Graphic “The Long Walk” is Revelatory for Those Joining the Journey](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-long-walk/) - Call it a self-help book on film for becoming a man. It may be based on one of Stephen King’s earliest writings from 1979, but the grim dystopian domestic future of Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk (B+) now feels like it could be happening in today’s America a few weeks or months from now, with
- ["Re-Election" is a Hanging Chad of a Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/re-election-is-a-hanging-chad-of-a-comedy/) - We’ve all had the dream of going back to school, armed with what we know now, imagining the power of what we’d do differently; but a new film squanders the conceit. In his unsuccessful comedy Re-Election (D), director Adam Saunders plays an aimless middle-aged sad sack who re-enrolls in high school to run for class
- [“Twinless” a Rollicking Requiem for Modern Male Bonding](https://silverscreencapture.com/twinless-a-rollicking-requiem-for-modern-male-bonding/) - Note: Thanks to Out On Film for an early screening as this buzzy Sundance acquisition gets a theatrical run in select markets starting this week. Between seclusion from common COVID-era customs, confusion over gender roles, delusion over modern etiquette and illusions of relationships forged online or in video games, it’s no wonder IRL has mainly
- [Latest Spike/Denzel Collab “Highest 2 Lowest” Slow to Find Footing](https://silverscreencapture.com/latest-spike-denzel-collab-highest-2-lowest-slow-to-find-footing/) - From discordant opening sequences to a transcendent finale, the Spike Lee’s latest operates in an auspicious plane as “most improved Joint.” Highest 2 Lowest (B-), playing in select theatres before streaming on Apple+, is Lee’s neo-noir remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 High and Low, and Lee makes the story completely his own with contemporary themes
- [Qualley Control: Actress the Best Part of Noirish Comedy "Honey Don't!"](https://silverscreencapture.com/qualley-control-actress-the-best-part-of-noirish-comedy-honey-dont/) - Actress Margaret Qualley nearly tames the basest instincts of one half of a talented sibling filmmaking team as Ethan Coen co-writes and directs the offbeat dark comedy mystery Honey Don’t! (C+). What a difference a partner in crime makes, as Ethan trades his brotherly collaborator to instead riff with former editor, now co-writer Tricia Cooke;
- ["Reclaiming It" -- Out On Film Presents Queer Propaganda with a Twist 9/25 - 10/5](https://silverscreencapture.com/reclaiming-it-atlantas-out-on-film-9-25-10-5-presents-queer-propaganda-with-a-twist/) - The animated Lesbian Space Princess, documentary The Librarians and the buzzy Tom Blyth/Russell Tovey drama Plainclothes are among the high-profile films in one of the most diverse festivals in the country. Atlanta’s preeminent, Oscar-qualifying film festival Out On Film today announced its provocative 2025 “Queer Propaganda”’-themed full lineup, marking the event’s 38th year of bringing
- ["Us" is a Spellbinding Modern Horror Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-us-2019/) - Anyone who's ever fantasized about having a twin has probably not seen many horror movies, because doppelgänger-dom is typically hell on earth when your double turns out to be trouble. In telling the suspenseful story of a privileged family facing off with unfortunate duplicate "others," Jordan Peele's Us (B+) peels back lots of layers about
- [2025 “Naked Gun" Reboot Lets Deadpan Liam Neeson Be Frank to Fun Effect](https://silverscreencapture.com/2025-naked-gun-reboot-lets-deadpan-liam-neeson-be-frank-to-fun-effect/) - Liam Neeson shines in gag-a-minute “Naked Gun” for 2025.
- ["The Fantastic Four: First Steps" is At Least Not an Embarrassment](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-fantastic-four-first-steps-is-at-least-not-an-embarrassment/) - Third time’s the charm for the new Four, for the most part. Faithful and fastidious to its comic book origins but strangely dramatically inert, Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps (B-) does a better job than past attempts to ignite this story but remains simply a passable initial entry into Phase Six of Marvel
- [Sundance Drama “Plainclothes” Comes to Out on Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-film-festival-drama-plainclothes-showcases-longing-of-gay-love/) - In the grand cinematic tradition of voyeurs becoming involved with their subjects, two unlikely men assume the archetypal roles in Carmen Emmi’s Plainclothes (B). Set in ‘90s New York, a working-class undercover officer (Tom Blyth) is tasked with entrapping and apprehending gay men, only to find himself drawn to one of his targets, portrayed by
- [Real-Life Couple Fuse "Together" with Eyes Wide Stuck in Comedic Body Horror Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/real-life-couple-fuse-together-with-eyes-wide-stuck-in-comedic-body-horror-film/) - Real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco fuse together with scares and laughs in recommended Sundance sensation body horror film “Together.”
- [Comedy “Friendship” Depicts Bonkers, Botched Buddy System](https://silverscreencapture.com/comedy-friendship-depicts-bonkers-botched-buddy-system/) - Lead actor Tim Robinson is honorary jester of the cringe festival that is writer/director Andrew DeYoung’s dark comedy Friendship (B-), often more interesting for its twisty takes on a funny theme than any passing resemblance to reality. Robinson plays a suburban husband and dad who falls hard for a charismatic new neighbor played by Paul
- ["Happy Gilmore 2" an Abject Calamity](https://silverscreencapture.com/happy-gilmore-2-an-abject-calamity/) - Kyle Newacheck’s legacy sequel Happy Gilmore 2 (D-) has such a “grip it and rip it” feel, it almost doesn’t even qualify as a movie at all. Undoubtedly a documentary about making this film would have yielded more laughs than those captured and presented on the streaming screen. Slapshot direction meets a scattershot script as
- [As Pandemic Microcosm, "Eddington" is a Wicked Little Town](https://silverscreencapture.com/as-pandemic-microcosm-eddington-is-a-wicked-little-town/) - For his latest neo-Western fantasia fixated on uncompromising characters maneuvering the tripwires and powder kegs of modern life, Ari Aster dusts up a flurry of ideas and then leaves his audience largely befuddled! The nervy politically-charged dark comedy Eddington (C-) rolls the clock back just a few short years to the opening months of pandemic
- ["Jurassic World Rebirth" Unearths Fab Creatures and Drab Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/jurassic-world-rebirth-unearths-fab-creatures-and-drab-story/) - Thankfully at least the Cretaceous creatures and their gnarling antics are impressive on the big screen for those checking out this summer sequel! Director Gareth Edwards creates some splendid action panoramas, but his film’s storyline is scattered and characters uninspiring in Jurassic World Rebirth (C). Several entourages travel to the scene of the dinosaur crimes
- [Goofy Golf Comedy “Happy Gilmore” Putters Around to Occasional Amusement](https://silverscreencapture.com/goofy-golf-comedy-happy-gilmore-putters-around-to-occasional-amusement/) - Despite its cult status as a legendary golf comedy, the short game of Dennis Dugan’s Happy Gilmore (B-) is a lot of sputter before it sparks. The film is a vehicle for Adam Sandler whose latest variation an his signature angry man-child finds him recoiling from a stillborn career as a hockey player to find
- [James Gunn Shares the Technology Behind the Hit 2025 Film "Superman"](https://silverscreencapture.com/james-gunn-shares-the-technology-behind-2025s-superman/) - The company NEP Sweetwater played a role behind the scenes of the new 2025 Superman film, supporting the LED stage technology behind many of the film’s most dynamic storytelling visuals. From flight sequences to the alien chaos outside the protagonist’s apartment, the Lux Stage at Trilith Studios gave this team flexibility to move fast, light practically and keep the ensemble connected to their acting performances opposite superhero fantasy elements. James Gunn discusses the technology behind his vision.
- [Suiting up for Sports Movies: “F1” Success Reveals Winning Hand of Popular Genre](https://silverscreencapture.com/suiting-up-for-sports-movies-f1-success-reveals-winning-hand-of-popular-genre/) - With Brad Pitt driving the race car adventure F1 to critical and box office glory, more goofy golf shenanigans courtesy of Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore 2 this month on Netflix, September’s Jordan Peele-produced horror film Him set in an isolated compound of a dynasty team’s aging quarterback, October’s The Smashing Machine headlined by Dwayne
- [2025 Live Action “How to Train Your Dragon” Mostly Soars](https://silverscreencapture.com/2025-live-action-how-to-train-your-dragon-mostly-soars/) - A decade and a half after he co-directed the animated film of the same name, Dean DeBlois helms the 2025 live-action version of How to Train Your Dragon (B), and it often soars. The cuteness and spunk of the titular dragon Toothless doesn’t fully translate into the real-life fantasy realm, but the flights of fancy,
- [Reverse-Order “The Life of Chuck” Cloaks Cloying Conventions](https://silverscreencapture.com/reverse-order-the-life-of-chuck-cloaks-cloying-conventions/) - It ultimately delivers a noble message about appreciating the finite nature of human life and its myriad connections, but Mike Flanagan’s sentimental and befuddling The Life of Chuck (C-) takes the form of a gourmet pretzel cooling off for a significant spell before it finally cuts the mustard. Because Stephen King doesn’t write Hallmark cards, his
- [Investing in Krypto: James Gunn Unleashes Inspired “Superman” Teaser Trailer](https://silverscreencapture.com/investing-in-krypto-james-gunn-unleashes-inspired-superman-teaser-trailer/) - The captivating sneak preview for the July 2025 Superman features new Man of Steel/Clark Kent played by David Corenswet (photographed here by Silver Screen Capture at a movie event in Georgia, where he filmed much of the feature at Trilith Studios) as a more relatable superhero, flanked by superdog Krypto, a convenient device for shaggy,
- [Final “Mission: Impossible” is Best Once the Clock Starts its Countdown](https://silverscreencapture.com/final-mission-impossible-is-best-once-the-clock-starts-its-countdown/) - The eighth and purportedly last installment in the stunt-forward espionage film series, Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (B-) is a very late bloomer, with both extended exposition and also a soggy undersea sequence overstaying their welcome before the movie’s final hour finally delivers the goods with intersecting sequences of suspense and Tom
- [It’s Deja Vu in the Dojo with “Karate Kid: Legends” ](https://silverscreencapture.com/its-deja-vu-in-the-dojo-with-karate-kid-legends/) - This requel is no equal to 40 years of predecessors in the triumphant underdog series, but the good-natured, proven crowd-pleasing formula will still likely delight young viewers and families. Jonathan Entwistle’s Karate Kid: Legends (C+) places casually charismatic young actor Ben Wang at its center, transplanted from Beijing to NYC with a non-emotive mother (Ming-Na
- [Movie Musical Mania: Watch Two New Teaser Trailers Debut](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-musical-trailer-mania/) - This week trailers for two anticipated movie musicals dropped: Wicked: For Good, the continued telling of Stephen Schwartz's Oz-set saga, and Kiss of the Spider Woman, based on the Kander and Ebb musical which was in turn a non-musical movie in the '80s. John M. Chu's second Wicked film features vocals by Ariana Grande, Cynthia
- [“Final Destination Bloodlines” Cleverly Traces Body Count Brackets](https://silverscreencapture.com/final-destination-bloodlines-cleverly-traces-body-count-brackets/) - Wonders never cease when one outruns becoming deceased: Grim gamification, the stuff of snuff and the brackets of kicking the bucket collide in Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein’s supernatural horror film Final Destination Bloodlines (B-). The jaw-dropping extended introductory sequence, set atop a high-rise restaurant tower in the ‘60s where uneasy group revelry on a
- ["Thunderbolts*" Prove An Actual Marvel](https://silverscreencapture.com/thunderbolts-prove-an-actual-marvel/) - Marvel's "Thunderbolts*" kicks off the summer 2025 movie season. It's a rousing adventure and also a great allegory about mental health.
- [Oh “Mickey 17,” You’re So…Fine???](https://silverscreencapture.com/oh-mickey-17-youre-sofine/) - Review of the new film "Mickey 17" from the director of "Parasite"
- [ArtsXchange, South Fulton Arts and BronzeLens to Present Local Short Films Friday, June 20](https://silverscreencapture.com/artsxchange-south-fulton-arts-and-bronzelens-to-present-local-short-films-friday-june-20/) - ArtsXchange, South Fulton Arts (SFA), and BronzeLens Film Festival are uniting to present Art in Action, a free evening of films and community conversation Friday, June 20 honoring the role of working artists in shaping Atlanta’s cultural legacy. Featured are four locally made documentary films produced and commissioned by SFA in 2023 and 2024 as part of its Filmer series and explore artists' influence: City of Kings, Just People, Rhyme Travelers and Say Yes to Destiny.
- ["The Accountant 2" is Certified Fun, an Epic Extension for Action Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-accountant-2-is-certified-fun-an-epic-extension-for-action-saga/) - An offbeat espionage thriller franchise gets a full buddy comedy treatment in the tax season extension surprise sure to please action fans. Gavin O’Connor ups the ante from its predecessor for an epic sequel, The Accountant 2 (A-), by maximizing the intrigue and world building of his protagonist Christian Wolff’s (Ben Affleck, never better) savant
- ["A Nice Indian Boy" Works Wonders](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-nice-indian-boy-works-wonders-limited-release-april-2025/) - It’s official: The romcom of the year is a gay Hindu love story hot off the film festival circuit. Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy (A-) is an utter delight, with Karan Soni as a repressed doctor falling in love with a sentimental photographer played by Jonathan Groff.
- [Richard Linklater and Glen Powell Play with Identities in Entertaining “Hit Man”](https://silverscreencapture.com/richard-linklater-and-glenn-powell-play-with-identities-in-entertaining-hit-man/) - Note: This film is superb on the big screen, where it plays a limited run in big cities before its June 7 Netflix premiere. Director Richard Linklater is renowned for shaping revelatory performances reflecting on and rhapsodizing about the questions we ask and the stories we tell ourselves to reveal identity as a coping mechanism
- [June Squibb Shines as Spunky Senior in Sundance Comedy “Thelma”](https://silverscreencapture.com/june-squibb-shines-as-spunky-senior-in-sundance-comedy-thelma/) - This is a last great gasp of mainstream Sundance Film Festival cinema in which a feisty independent-living grandma treks across L.A. to get even with a telephone fraudster who almost got the best of her. Josh Margolin’s Thelma (B) features a mighty performance by the wonderful June Squibb and another by the late, great Richard
- [”A Quiet Place: Day One” is an Artful Prequel](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-quiet-place-day-one-is-an-artful-prequel/) - The third installment in a film series about a world invasion by aliens with acute hearing, Michael Sarnoski’s prequel A Quiet Place: Day One (A-) is part apocalyptic horror tale, part romantic drama and part sci-fi spinoff. Because the characters have to remain largely silent to avoid the invaders’ detection, it is a showcase of
- [Moody “Longlegs” Earns its Scares](https://silverscreencapture.com/moody-longlegs-earns-its-scares/) - A tightrope wire of unsettling mood and ominous dread, writer/director Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs (B+) is fairly certain to secure its place as the year’s iconic horror movie. Maika Monroe is magnificent in a very controlled performance as an FBI agent with psychic skills assigned to a decades-spanning unsolved serial killer case with evidence of the occult.
- ["Sing Sing" a Tender, Entertaining Testament to Redemptive Power of the Arts](https://silverscreencapture.com/sing-sing-a-tender-entertaining-testament-to-redemptive-power-of-the-arts/) - The show must go on for maximum security prisoners participating in a rehabilitative theatre troupe in Greg Kwedar's tenderly humane and moving real-life drama Sing Sing (A). Colman Domingo marvelously anchors the story as a long-time inmate on the verge of a clemency hearing who has become the central journeyman performer in an acting class
- [“Alien: Romulus” Delivers Style and Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/alien-romulus-delivers-style-and-action/) - “Alien: Romulus” delivers classic action and aesthetic likely to please fans of the franchise.
- [“Speak No Evil” Remake a Twisty Hybrid Thriller and Comedy of Manners](https://silverscreencapture.com/speak-no-evil-remake-a-twisty-hybrid-thriller-and-comedy-of-manners/) - Just two years after the disturbing Danish horror film of the same name, a twisty and much more broadly comic 2024 American remake of Speak No Evil (B-) provides a highly watchable cautionary tale about two families who become friends on vacation and discover an altogether different relationship when they reunite on one couple's home
- [“Smile 2” a Dizzying Descent into Pop Star Madness](https://silverscreencapture.com/smile-2-a-dizzying-descent-into-pop-star-madness/) - In a season of crazy conspiracies, extended delirious dancing and popular public figures melting under spotlights and scrutiny (describing not just the current political race but recent plots of Trap and The Substance), Parker Finn's Smile 2 (B-) mostly delivers on its gonzo premise: that life as a global music icon is akin to enduring
- [Kieran Culkin is "A Real Pain" in Buddy Dramedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/kieran-culkin-is-a-real-pain-in-buddy-dramedy/) - Jesse Eisenberg's "A Real Pain" follows mismatched cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin) who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the odd couple's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
- [Papal Procedural “Conclave” is Surprisingly Tense and Timely](https://silverscreencapture.com/papal-procedural-conclave-is-surprisingly-tense-and-timely/) - The behind-closed-doors election of a new pope plays out like a whodunit in Edward Berger's superb drama Conclave (A-). Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), tasked with facilitating this secretive and ancient event and surrounded by powerful religious leaders from around the world in the halls of the Vatican, uncovers a series of deep secrets that could
- ["Gladiator II" a Strong Companion Piece to Oscar-Winning Original](https://silverscreencapture.com/gladiator-ii-a-strong-companion-piece-to-oscar-winning-original/) - The palace intrigue and visual effects both get mighty upgrades -- albeit with fewer iconic declarations of dialogue -- as Ridley Scott returns to the ring for a highly enjoyable Gladiator II (B+). While many of the story beats represent a retread of the Best Picture winning 2000 original film, Paul Mescal steps comfortably into
- [Epic Film "The Brutalist" is Sprawling and Brilliant](https://silverscreencapture.com/epic-film-the-brutalist-is-sprawling-and-brilliant/) - A classic adage proclaims the art of writing about music is akin to dancing about architecture; conversely, critiquing a movie featuring a modernist minimalist designer upending conventions is a particularly apt parallel for unpacking Brady Corbet's ambitious 215-minute period piece The Brutalist (A). Filmed especially for 7O millimeter VistaVision large-screen formats including narrative divided into
- [Whimsical, Witchy Women Spotlighted in Sensational Singing Saga "Wicked: Part I"](https://silverscreencapture.com/witchy-women-spotlighted-in-sensational-singing-saga-wicked-part-i/) - Nearly three quarters of a century after cinematic Oz world-building began, the Good Witch and the Wicked Witch conjure some rousing revisionist history in “Wicked” and successfully extend the “Oz” franchise in one of the year’s most enchanting experiences.
- [A "Companion" for the Curious](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-companion-for-the-curious/) - A genre defying film that’s part romance, part satire, part horror, part fantasy, part whodunit and parts unknown, Drew Hancock’s Companion (B+) confronts the dynamics of modern relationships in fierce and twisty ways. Set in a lavish weekend getaway mountain home, the gathered ensemble is game for the occasion: Sophie Thatcher as a troubled companion
- ["Liza" Documentary a Dazzler](https://silverscreencapture.com/liza-documentary-a-dazzler/) - Bruce David Klein’s latest documentary shows how a star was reborn into a stage and screen legend. Chronicling the complex period of Liza Minnelli’s life starting in the 1970s, just after the tragic death of her mother Judy Garland, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (B+), is star-studded and often dazzling. Viewers will get to
- [“Novocaine” Painlessly Pulls Off Action with Charm and Surface Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/novocaine-painlessly-pulls-off-action-with-charm-and-surface-fun/) - Doused with deliberate doses of both sweet and sadistic sequences, co-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s action comedy Novocaine (B) offers constant injections of surface fun in a high-concept package. Durable actor Jack Quaid plays a bank executive with a rare condition: he is incapable of feeling physical pain. He’s also smitten with his co-worker
- [Bowen, Tran and Gladstone Rise to Occasion of "The Wedding Banquet" (2025)](https://silverscreencapture.com/bowen-tran-and-gladstone-rise-to-occasion-of-the-wedding-banquet-2025/) - For his remake of the celebrated 1993 Taiwanese film of the same name, director Andrew Ahn brings something borrowed and something new to his 2025 The Wedding Banquet (B+), recently screened at Sundance and Out on Film festivals. Hoping to remain in the U.S., a gay heir to a family fortune played by a wily
- [As "The Surfer," Nicolas Cage Stakes His Claim in Bully-Ridden Beach Town](https://silverscreencapture.com/as-the-surfer-nicolas-cage-stakes-his-claim-in-bully-ridden-beach-town/) - "The Surfer" starring Nicolas Cage is being screened at Atlanta Film Festival 2025.
- [The Great Shape-Shifting Season of 2020 Movies](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-the-great-shape-shifting-season-of-movies/) - Fresh off the Academy Awards triumph of the first foreign language Best Picture winner - the lush and labyrinthine Parasite - there was a sense for cinephiles that now nearly anything was possible. But the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic on American soil, complete with new concepts such as "shelter in place" and "physical distance,"
- [Jason Mamoa Salvages Comic Gold from Mayhem of “A Minecraft Movie”](https://silverscreencapture.com/mamoa-salvages-some-comic-gold-from-mid-mayhem-of-a-minecraft-movie/) - Blockbuster hit "A Minecraft Movie" is rather by the books, with only a funny cast-against-type Jason Mamoa performance a standout in the video game adaptation story line. Jack Black seems perpetually doomed to family-friendly special effects purgatory and is not very memorable in this movie kids seem to be lapping up at the box office.
- [World Premiere of Epic Atlanta ’96 Olympic Story Slated for 2025 Atlanta Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/world-premiere-of-epic-atlanta-96-olympic-story-slated-for-2025-atlanta-film-festival/) - "The Games in Black & White" will screen at the Atlanta Film Festival April 26 at 6:30pm at the Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University.
- [Action Film "The Accountant" Far From a Write-Off](https://silverscreencapture.com/action-film-the-accountant-far-from-a-write-off/) - As the titular star of Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant (B), Ben Affleck’s character can’t start a puzzle without completing it. This curious protagonist, equal parts autistic auditor and stone cold killer, takes his cues less from Rain Man and more from John Wick, and much of the movie is an enigma wrapped in flashbacks and
- [Atlanta Film Festival Documentary “Speak.” Showcases Peak Performance](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-film-festival-documentary-speak/) - High school speech makers prove the power of the podium in Jennifer Tiexiera and Guy Mossman’s moving documentary Speak. (A). By telling the behind-the-scenes stories of a quintet of top-ranked students in the national speech and debate category called “original oratory” in which they deliver the teenage equivalent of TED Talks, viewers get an insider
- [It’s Spy vs. Spy Times Three in Sleek Caper “Black Bag” ](https://silverscreencapture.com/its-spy-vs-spy-times-three-in-sleek-caper-black-bag/) - Fair warning to moviegoers with short attention spans, audiences expecting a thriller with rollicking action or viewers opting to experience this film streaming rather than in theatres: this isn’t for you. Steven Soderbergh’s Black Bag (A-) is a brisk and efficient espionage caper that demands, nay, requires your attention to appreciate the art and slow-burn
- [Live-Action Disney’s Perceived Poison Apple Emerges a Semi-Charmed “Snow White”](https://silverscreencapture.com/live-action-disneys-perceived-poison-apple-emerges-a-semi-charmed-snow-white/) - Were there a digital dwarf-free edition of the 2025 "Snow White" live action film, this Disney musical joy-bomb would score more than its otherwise provisional recommendation. As live action Disney movies go, however, this one deserves an electrical light parade following the studio's prolonged purgatory in a remake cringe festival.
- [Hearty Foal Becomes Party Foul for Quirky “Death of a Unicorn” Denizens](https://silverscreencapture.com/hearty-foal-becomes-party-foul-for-quirky-death-of-a-unicorn-denizens/) - “Death of a Unicorn” fancies itself a contemporary mash-up of indie creature feature and cautionary tale when it’s really a warmed-over “Jurassic Park” knockoff with a horn section. Paul Rudd lands with a thud, and Jenna Ortega isn’t great either. See it for the fun of Will Poulter’s haughty heir.
- [Atlanta’s Out On Film Presents Spring Mini-Fest'25 March 17-19, 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/atlantas-out-on-film-presents-spring-mini-fest25-march-17-19-2025/) - Atlanta's preeminent, Oscar-qualifying film festival Out OnFilm brings five of 2025's most anticipated LGBTQIA+ narrative films and documentaries to Southern audiences with its "Spring Mini-Fest'25," taking place over three consecutive evenings March17-19 at Landmark’s Midtown Arts Cinema. Back for a third year, Spring Mini-Fest kicks off Monday, March 17 with the comedy of errors The
- [Cartoon Carnage On Display in King Adaptation "The Monkey"](https://silverscreencapture.com/cartoon-carnage-on-display-in-king-adaptation-the-monkey/) - A cursed curio and two vengeful twins are the Maine attraction in the latest adaptation of a classic Stephen King short story. The Monkey (B-), the latest horror film by Osgood Perkins, explores childhood trauma through the eyes of actor Theo James in dual roles as bickering brothers in possession of an organ grinder wind-up
- [Dark Romcom "Anora" Starts and Ends Strong But Lags When It Counts](https://silverscreencapture.com/dark-romcom-anora-starts-and-ends-strong-but-lags-when-it-counts/) - Anora is a 2024 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Sean Baker. It stars Mikey Madison as the stripper Anora Mikheeva, and follows her beleaguered romance with the son of a Russian oligarch, played by Mark Eydelshteyn.
- [Fernanda Torres in Brazil's Oscars Entry "I'm Still Here" Celebrates Motherhood](https://silverscreencapture.com/brazils-oscars-entry-im-still-here-a-tribute-to-a-real-mothers-fortitude/) - Many of the best moms in the movies tend to carry a tune (Mamma Mia!, The Sound of Music), pack a punch or a wallop (The Terminator, Aliens) or be played by Sally Field. Joining this hallowed pantheon is Fernanda Torres as Eunice Paiva, the matriarch who keeps a brave face despite her dissident husband's
- [Celebrity News: My Heart Will Go On...For Golf! and "Happy Gilmore 2" Release Date](https://silverscreencapture.com/celebrity-news-my-heart-will-go-on-for-golf-and-happy-gilmore-2-release-date/) - It seems everyone is finding their heart and their happy place in the game of golf these days, including celebrities ranging from Celine to the "Sandman." Atlanta-based PGA TOUR Superstore President Jill Spiegel and global music sensation (and golf lover!) Celine Dion were spotted just this week taking in the TGL match between Atlanta Drive
- [“Captain America: Brave New World” Shields Viewers from Much Fun or Fantasy](https://silverscreencapture.com/captain-america-brave-new-world-shields-viewers-from-much-fun-or-fantasy/) - The 35th Marvel Cinematic Universe film mixes Tom Clancy style espionage with the increasingly complicated trappings of serialized superheroism, and the whole hulking smash-up faces an identity and creativity crisis. Julius Onah’s Captain America: Brave New World (C) chronicles two characters in the honeymoon periods of newfound careers: Harrison Ford as newly elected and problematic
- ["Parasite" is a Dark Comedic Masterpiece](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-parasite-2019/) - Months after Jordan Peele’s Us explored the haves and have nots duking it out in a surreal version of contemporary American society, Bong Joon ho’s Parasite (A-) elevates class warfare to a whole new milieu via a dark comedic story of the extraordinary denizens of a blissed-out South Korea metropolis. The visionary director introduces viewers
- [Sci-Fi “Snowpiercer” is an Amazing Ride](https://silverscreencapture.com/snowpiercer/) - A dystopian sci-fi action film about a rebellion aboard a train carrying the last survivors of an uninhabitable future earth, Bong Joon ho’s Snowpiercer (A-) is a corker of a thriller with twists around each and every turn. Chris Evans as the reluctant hero has never been better, and Tilda Swinton is inspired casting as
- [Oscar Night 2020](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-oscar-night-2020/) - Here's your guide to Sunday’s Oscars. The Academy Awards telecast is Sunday at 8 p.m. on ABC. Expect glamour in the form of Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie and the twice-nominated Scarlett Johansson to dominate the red carpet walkway. But many of the awards will be doled out to those who forged an unexpected path for
- [Four of Us from Southeastern Film Critics Association Weigh in on 2025 Oscars](https://silverscreencapture.com/four-of-us-from-southeastern-film-critics-association-weigh-in-on-2025-oscars/) - Are we all now leaning toward Conclave vs. Anora? What a chaotic season after SAG Awards shifted the picture and actor races yet again! Here's our latest discussion. Tune in Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 7:00pm Eastern for the ABC telecast.
- [TikTok Top Oscars Predictions](https://silverscreencapture.com/tiktok-top-oscars-predictions/) - In 60 seconds, we reveal what we think will win in the top categories at the Academy Awards ceremony March 2, 2025. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2PFhaNQ
- [Oscars Viewing Party at Trilith's ENZO Restaurant Sunday, March 2, 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/oscars-viewing-party-at-triliths-enzo-restaurant-sunday-march-2-2025/) - ENZO is rolling out the red carpet for an Oscars Viewing Party on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Celebrating the glitz and glam of Hollywood's biggest night in the heart of the Town at Trilith, you’re invited to make a grand entrance on the red carpet with professional photographers capturing every timeless moment. Beginning at 6:00
- [Check Out Our GPB Interview About Oscars 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/check-out-gpb-interview-about-oscars-2025/) - Silver Screen Capture was invited for commentary on Georgia Public Broadcasting about the 2025 Oscars ceremony.
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival Celebrates 25 Years: Feb. 19 - March 16, 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/atlanta-jewish-film-festival-celebrates-25-years-feb-19-march-16-2025/) - The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) will present 50 films celebrating the diversity of Jewish experiences around the globe for its 25th year. From curated feature films with unexpected titles such as Guns & Moses and Sabbath Queen to documentaries about the likes of controversial German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and Oscars original song favorite Diane Warren, there are movies
- [Documentary "Sabbath Queen" Shakes Up the Orthodoxy](https://silverscreencapture.com/documentary-sabbath-queen-shakes-up-the-orthodoxy/) - The honey and apples fall fabulously far from the family tree as 39th generation ex-Orthodox Jew Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie radically reinvents religion and ritual in Sandi DuBowski’s Sabbath Queen (B+). Spanning more than two decades, with animation filling in some of the ancestral details, this entertaining and insightful documentary chronicles the nonconforming descendent of the
- [There's an Oscars Class at KSU - and I Got to Speak to the Students!](https://silverscreencapture.com/theres-an-oscars-class-at-ksu-and-i-got-to-speak-with-them-this-week/) - I spoke with the Academy Awards class taught by Dr. Amber Hutchins at Kennesaw State University this week to discuss a variety of topics about the very volatile 2025 Oscars!
- [Body Horror Becomes Demi Moore in “The Substance”](https://silverscreencapture.com/body-horror-becomes-demi-moore-in-the-substance/) - Demi Moore is wonderful as a fading star who turns to a black market medical regimen to restore her youth in an over-the-top body horror film.
- ["Nickel Boys" a Stylish Lens on Historical Horrors](https://silverscreencapture.com/nickel-boys-a-stylish-lens-on-historical-horrors/) - Tropes become tone poems and trauma gets a newly underscored point of view in a lyrical and gorgeously lensed screen epic based on a popular novel. RaMell Ross, acclaimed documentarian and now director and co-adapter of Nickel Boys (B), puts his camera at the center of his historical drama, and what is intended to place
- [Reverse-Hallmark Card Ensemble: "Hard Truths" an Apt Reminder to Be Good to One Another](https://silverscreencapture.com/reverse-hallmark-card-ensemble-hard-truths-an-apt-reminder-to-be-good-to-one-another/) - It’s hard to get a word in edgewise versus the toxic female powder keg at the center of this family drama: and by bringing to life one of his film catalogue’s most indelible personalities, director Mike Leigh and muse Marianne Jean-Baptiste create a character for the ages and an instantly relatable series of events. Hard
- [“The Last Showgirl” Has Good Heart But Doesn’t Hit its Marks](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-last-showgirl-has-good-heart-but-doesnt-hit-its-marks/) - Pamela Anderson’s lived-in, wistful and sometimes heartbreaking performance as a veteran dancer in a Vegas spectacular is the standout in the otherwise fairly pedestrian production of Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl (C). The long-running “Razzle Dazzle” show is closing after years on The Strip, which means the protagonist must tie up lots of loose ends
- [Stephen Brown’s Oscars Eve of Nomination Day Predictions](https://silverscreencapture.com/stephen-browns-oscars-eve-of-nomination-day-predictions/) - Oscar nominations are tomorrow morning. Here are my predictions for what will make the Academy’s nomination list in all categories for 2024 movies being honored March 2, 2025. Can’t wait to be wrong on some choices! Then phase two of voting will commence! THE BEST PICTURE TENAll We Imagine is Light Anora The Brutalist A
- ["Saturday Night" Shows High-Wire Act Behind SNL's 1975 Pilot](https://silverscreencapture.com/saturday-night-shows-high-wire-act-of-making-snls-fateful-75-pilot/) - Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night" shows madcap making of 1975 SNL.
- ["Flow" is a “Cat”-ivating Animated Spectacular](https://silverscreencapture.com/flow-is-a-cat-ivating-animated-spectacular/) - Along with "The Wild Robot," the indie "Flow" is the animated family movie of the year, a Latvian indie about a cat and animal friends reaching higher ground from a great flood.
- [“I Saw the TV Glow,” “The Substance” Lead LGBTQIA+ 2024 Dorian Award Noms](https://silverscreencapture.com/i-saw-the-tv-glow-the-substance-lead-lgbtqia-2024-dorian-award-noms/) - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons (including yours truly), announced the group’s democratically chosen nominees for its 16th Dorian Film Awards. The Dorians go to both mainstream and LGBTQ-themed content, celebrating what the group calls “the expert Q+ eye on entertainment.” Leading with an impressive nine
- ["September 5" a Sturdy Look at Real-Time News Judgment](https://silverscreencapture.com/september-5-a-sturdy-look-at-real-time-news-judgment/) - The fact-based film "September 5" transports viewers to 1972 Munich Olympic Games and a sports crew's makeshift coverage of terrorism in real-time.
- [Weak Story, Drab Production of Bob Dylan Biopic Keeps Subject “A Complete Unknown"](https://silverscreencapture.com/weak-story-drab-production-of-bob-dylan-biopic-keeps-subject-a-complete-unknown/) - Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in James Mangold's biopic of the legendary young folk singer.
- ["Juror #2" a Taut, Thoughtful and Tortured Deliberators Department](https://silverscreencapture.com/tortured-deliberators-department-spotlights-eastwoods-juror-2/) - Director Clint Eastwood, career action star turned elder statesman of the thinking person’s dramatic film, returns to the scene of the crime — and punishment — in the sturdy and somber Georgia-set procedural Juror #2 (A-). Nicholas Hoult plays a novelist and expectant father serving as a juror in a prominent murder trial and finds
- ["Better Man" Biopic a Kong Day’s Journey into Trite](https://silverscreencapture.com/better-man-biopic-a-kong-days-journey-into-trite/) - Bad boy Britpop singing sensation Robbie Williams has been such a party animal through much of his adulthood, it’s no wonder director Michael Gracey takes the wild swing of rendering his character as an anthropomorphic allegorical ape for the biopic Better Man (C+). And the ups and downs of fame, self-loathing and addiction prove it’s
- [“The Preakness” a Prescient Parable](https://silverscreencapture.com/short-film-the-preakness-a-prescient-parable/) - Stephen Michael Brown Serendipitously, Coppola protégé Akshay Bhatia has made a short film about an offer that can’t be refused in the sophisticated and splendid cautionary tale The Preakness (A). One drunken night, a down-on-his-luck ranch owner and horse trainer (Jeffrey Pierce) receives a visit from a mysterious and insistent lobbyist (Gena Shaw) with a proposition that could | Short Film
- ["Queer" Film Conjures a Lived-in Magic](https://silverscreencapture.com/queer-casts-a-lived-in-magic/) - Faithful to its source material about Beat Generation postmodern author William S. Burroughs' self-imposed exile to Mexico, Luca Guadagnino's Queer (B) casts Daniel Craig in the central role of the controversial author cruising for sex and coping with a lifelong heroin addiction as he nurtures twin obsessions with romance and magical drugs promising extrasensory perception.
- ["Emilia Pérez" is Audacious Art for Adventurous Moviegoers](https://silverscreencapture.com/emilia-perez-is-audacious-art/) - "Emilia Pérez" is an unconventional musical.
- [Nicole Kidman is Phenomenal as "Babygirl"](https://silverscreencapture.com/nicole-kidman-is-phenomenal-as-babygirl/) - As a CEO exploring long-simmering sexual desires with a company intern, Nicole Kidman creates a complex and mesmerizing character in "Babygirl."
- [2024 Oscars Viewing Party at Enzo in the Town at Trilith Spotlights Great Year for Films](https://silverscreencapture.com/2024-oscars-viewing-party-at-enzo-in-the-town-at-trilith-spotlights-great-year-for-films/) - The March 10, 2024 Academy Awards ceremony brought big wins for major Hollywood prestige pictures Oppenheimer and Poor Things plus a pop cultural celebration of comedy juggernaut Barbie with Oscar-nominated songs including an epic production number starring Ryan Gosling as "Ken." More than 100 guests gathered for an inaugural Oscars Viewing Party in Georgia's Town
- [Crass Menagerie of “Mufasa” Leaves This Viewer Scarred](https://silverscreencapture.com/mufasa-review/) - Talk about a circle of lifeless! It’s tough to detect evidence of the artisan touch of acclaimed director Barry Jenkins in a CGI animated prequel that could have actually been improved with AI. Mufasa: The Lion King (C-) tells some backstory of the Simba-verse with an extraneous framing device to ensure all members of the
- [Silver Screen Capture’s 24 Recommended ‘24 Movies](https://silverscreencapture.com/silver-screen-captures-24-recommended-24-movies/) - These are Stephen Michael Brown's top 24 films of 2024 reviewed on the Silver Screen Capture website.
- [2024's "Nosferatu" is Pretty as a Connect-the-Dots Dracula Picture](https://silverscreencapture.com/2024s-nosferatu-is-pretty-as-a-connect-the-dots-dracula-picture/) - Robert Eggers exhumes a classic Dracula tale in updated thriller.
- [Indie “Ghostlight” Spotlights Power of Theatre to Cope with Grief](https://silverscreencapture.com/indie-ghostlight-spotlights-power-of-theatre-to-cope-with-grief/) - In the spirit of CODA and Sing Sing, here’s a sleeper indie about how performing arts can rescue a life sliding out of control. Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s Ghostlight (B) focuses on a burly construction worker (Keith Kupferer) coping with tragedy. The actor’s real-life wife and teenage daughter Tara Mallen and Katherine Mallen Kupferer
- [“Challengers” a Potent Mix of Acting Threesome with Sexy Sport and Score](https://silverscreencapture.com/challengers-is-a-potent-mix-of-acting-threesome-with-sexy-sport-and-score/) - It’s a love triangle with more than a touch of tennis envy as a palace intrigue story of sorts plays out court-side among the agile athletes of Luca Guadagnino’s smart, sassy guilty pleasure romantic drama Challengers (B+). Three characters are front and center in a plot that zig-zags and thirst-traps across nearly a decade and
- [“Sebastian” is an Intimate, Explicit Portrait of a Double Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-festival-presents-intimate-explicit-portrait-of-sebastian/) - As more multiplex audiences get to experience the story of an author exploring his pseudonym in the mainstream hit and Best Picture nominee American Fiction, a Sundance Film Festival entry now at the Out on Film festival, depicts a young British novelist leading a shocking double life in Mikko Mäkelä’s Sebastian (B). Rharidh Mollica plays
- [WWII-Era “Blitz”Handsomely Produced But Aimless](https://silverscreencapture.com/wwii-era-blitzhandsomely-produced-but-aimless/) - Wow, what a missed opportunity! Writer/director Steve McQueen’s promised epic Blitz (C) contains many stunning crafts, lush cinematography and powerful sound but is largely hollow at the center with generally passive primary characters not given much to do. With a WWII backdrop of air raids in 1940 England, a mother (Saoirse Ronan) and her biracial
- [“A Different Man" Thinks It’s More Interesting Than It Is](https://silverscreencapture.com/a-different-man-thinks-its-more-interesting-than-it-is/) - This is another one of a trend of “miracle drug movies” with unseemly side effects, although writer/director Aaron Schimberg doesn’t ground his dark comedy in either the realm of the realistic or the fantastical in enough doses to keep his audience completely on the hook. The resultant movie, A Different Man (C), is full of
- [TSA Thriller "Carry-On" Gifts Taron Egerton a Christmas Eve Crisis of Confidence](https://silverscreencapture.com/merry-rizz-sus-tsa-thriller-carry-on-gifts-taron-egerton-a-christmas-eve-crisis-of-confidence/) - The square-jawed protagonist of a new Yuletide actioner is equal parts dubious and daring, and he’s definitely in danger. Director Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry-On (B-) puts substantial decision-making on the shoulders of a humble LAX TSA agent played with aplomb by Taron Egerton, whose character is mid at adulting even as his pregnant girlfriend (Sofia Carson)
- ["The Piano Lesson" Film Adaptation Doesn’t Strike Consistent Chord](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-piano-lesson-film-adaptation-doesnt-strike-consistent-chord/) - Malcolm Washington didn’t choose the easiest adaptation — nor did he make much cinematic sense of it — with his directorial debut, The Piano Lesson (C), based on the August Wilson play. Instead of simply or conventionally translating a work already imbued with storied drama, the new director experiments with form and frenzy to unearth
- [Iran-Set "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" Interrogates Power and Protest](https://silverscreencapture.com/iran-set-the-seed-of-the-sacred-fig-interrogates-power-and-protest/) - Political conflict within a family sets the stage for rage as an Iranian wife and her two modern daughters rebel against the husband and father promoted to a role as prosecutor for the government and whose gun is missing from within their home. It’s a crackerjack premise surrounding a charged object and a movie stylishly
- [Scratch and Sniff Cinema Returns with Sensory Screenings of “Heretic” Oct. 30](https://silverscreencapture.com/scratch-and-sniff-cinema-returns-with-sensory-screenings-of-heretic-oct-30/) - "The Heretic" is the latest in a legendary line of scratch and sniff films.
- [Southeastern Film Critics Association Top 10 Films of 2024 Include "Anora," "The Brutalist," "Challengers," "Nickel Boys," "The Substance"](https://silverscreencapture.com/southeast-film-critics-association-top-10-films-of-2024-include-anora-the-brutalist-challengers-nickel-boys-the-substance/) - The Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) has named Sean Baker's Anora as best picture of the year. SEFCA's 89 members (including this reviewer!) located across nine Southeastern states named the following to its top films of 2024. Anora The Brutalist Conclave Dune Part 2 Challengers Nickel Boys Sing Sing Wicked (Part 1) The Substance A
- [Find These Ten “Megalopolis” Treasures at Coppola’s All-Movie Hotel](https://silverscreencapture.com/find-these-ten-megalopolis-treasures-at-coppolas-all-movie-hotel/) - A few months after its global debut, the speculative sci-fi noir film Megalopolis is still reigning supreme as a cult and conversation catalyst sensation, and its writer/director Francis Ford Coppola has many reasons to return to the stomping grounds where he completed this landmark production. While filming at Georgia's Trilith Studios, the famed filmmaker simultaneously
- [The Atlanta Film Critics Circle Announces 2024 Award Winners](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-atlanta-film-critics-circle-announces-2024-award-winners/) - Now in its eighth year, the Atlanta Film Critics Circle has announced its awards for top cinematic achievements in 2024. The 38 voting members of the AFCC chose director Sean Baker's Anora, the winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or, as its top film of the year. The sweet and sinister modern fairy tale, which also
- [“Southside with You” Imagines Obamas Dating](https://silverscreencapture.com/southside-with-you/) - In the tradition of the talky and compelling Before Sunrise trilogy, a new movie takes a similar approach to the fateful first date of one of the most historic and captivating couples of modern times. Writer/director Richard Tanne's Southside with You (A-) stars Parker Sawyers and Tika Sumpter as a young Barack and Michelle Robinson
- [Epic Sci-Fi Story Widens its Lens for “Dune: Part Two”](https://silverscreencapture.com/epic-sci-fi-story-widens-its-lens-for-dune-part-two/) - Denis Villeneuve brings IMAX-certified cameras to a knife fight and creates a picturesque panorama largely missing the joy of discovery so present in its predecessor as the director continues his interplanetary sci-fi saga in Dune: Part Two (B-). As the protagonist, Timothée Chalamet has grown into a more credible and physically impressive action hero this
- [”Kneecap” Irish Rappers Get Origin Story at Sundance Fest](https://silverscreencapture.com/kneecap-irish-rappers-get-origin-story-at-sundance-fest/) - Like Once and The Commitments before it, Rich Peppiatt's Kneecap (B-) follows in a grand tradition of Ireland-set ragtag musical dramas with a splash of comedy and political revelations thrown in for good measure. Set in post-Troubles Belfast, this Sundance tuner tells the origin story of the titular trio of real-life bandmates -- Liam Og
- [Out on Film: A Kaleidoscopic Lineup for Sept. 26 – Oct. 6, 2024 Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/out-on-film-announces-sept-26-oct-6-2024-lineup/) - Out on Film presented by GILEAD has announced the lineup of films and events for the 37th Anniversary edition of the Atlanta-based LGBTQIA+ film festival.
- [Documentary Dissects Life of “Super/Man” Christopher Reeve](https://silverscreencapture.com/documentary-dissects-sympathetic-super-man/) - A debilitating accident that would have banished a mere mortal to a fortress of solitude instead prompts a popular actor to soar even higher as a crusading hero in Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui's Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (A-). Nearly a decade since his passing, remembered through the eyes of those who knew and
- [Dystopian Curiosity:  Coppola Supplies the Sprawl in Urban Fable “Megalopolis”](https://silverscreencapture.com/coppola-puts-the-sprawl-in-urban-fable-megalopolis/) - Earning high praise for ambition and scope but faltering in terms of story and tone, Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling "Megalopolis" is a fever dream of a melodrama about characters contemplating the type of world in which they want to live.
- [Atlanta News: Peachtree Battle Estate Sales to Sell Film Studio Props](https://silverscreencapture.com/atlanta-news-peachtree-battle-estate-sales-to-sell-film-studio-props/) - A movie prop sale will take place in Atlanta.
- [Musical “Joker” Sequel a Folly](https://silverscreencapture.com/musical-joker-sequel-a-folly/) - Director Todd Phillips had a very novel approach for his 2019 take on the Joker character embodied by Joaquin Phoenix in an acclaimed, unhinged performance of the title role with Gotham City inhabitants in a "mean streets" milieu. Filmmaker Phillips and his star Phoenix return for the sequel, and although it has some flickers of
- [“The Wild Robot” Should Be Considered for Best Picture](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-wild-robot-should-be-considered-for-best-picture/) - One of the best animated features ever committed to film, The Wild Robot (A+), written and directed by Chris Sanders based on a book series by Peter Brown, is a glorious must-see movie on the theme that kindness is a survival skill. Sure it has requisite robot chases and cute talking animals to please a
- ["The Apprentice" Film is Origin Story of Young Trump with Good Acting, Scant Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-apprentice-film-about-young-trump-neither-a-red-statement-nor-blue-ballsy/) - The debate over box office tally size may be a non-starter as a buzzed-about biopic won't likely recruit many butts onto its golden seats. An unflattering origin story preceding modern times of the 45th presidency of the United States, Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice (C) stars Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and traces his ascendant real
- [“Will & Harper” a Road Trip to Self-Discovery and Friendship](https://silverscreencapture.com/will-harper-a-road-trip-to-self-discovery-and-friendship/) - Trying out different environments for size, two longtime buddies contemplate changes afoot in their lives while embarking on a revelatory journey. Josh Greenbaum's meditative documentary Will & Harper (A) traces a 17-day westbound road trip across America via station wagon with friends comic actor Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, a 61-year-old comic writer transitioning from
- [Pharrell Williams Deconstructed with Legos in Inventive “Piece by Piece”](https://silverscreencapture.com/pharrell-williams-deconstructed-with-legos-in-inventive-piece-by-piece/) - Ah, to be young, gifted, Black and a Lego! Director Morgan Neville's remarkable stop-motion animated documentary Piece by Piece (B) chronicles the life and career of contemporary musician Pharrell Williams through the kaleidoscopic lens of swirling brick building blocks, with many African-American mini-figurines and whimsical instruments developed specifically for the movie. A singular display of
- [“Here” It Isn’t](https://silverscreencapture.com/here-it-isnt/) - There’s probably a brilliant movie to be lensed using a stationary camera affixed on one single room of a house and chronicling what happens in that space on earth from prehistoric to pandemic times. Director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis hasn’t landed on the brilliant part of his cinematic science project.
- [“Heretic” a Clever Cat and Mouse Game](https://silverscreencapture.com/heretic-a-clever-cat-and-mouse-game/) - Hugh Grant plays against type as a creepy arbiter of a horrific escape room where he mansplains to two female Mormon missionaries the limits of faith in Bryan Woods and Scott Beck's Heretic (B-). It's a strange little movie, ostensibly in the horror genre but often so talky and obtuse that it might as well
- [As a Movie, "Maria" Doesn't Sing](https://silverscreencapture.com/maria/) - The least interesting thing about famed opera singer Maria Callis is finding her usually wondrous soprano voice cracking and croaking during her final days living in 1970s Paris, and yet that’s exactly what Pablo Larraín chooses to dramatize in his impressionistic biography "Maria."
- [2024 SAG Award Nominees Revealed](https://silverscreencapture.com/2024-sag-nominees-revealed/) - The 2024 SAG award nominations include four each for Oppenheimer and Barbie. My reviews of all the nominated films are linked.
- [Anticipated Fall Films of 2024, Bucketed!](https://silverscreencapture.com/anticipated-fall-films-of-2024-bucketed/) - After a sparse sputtering pipeline of movie content following 2023 strikes and 2024 threats of same, an array of festival films and several high-profile "tent pole" multiplex motion pictures are finally about to be unleashed or streamed to the viewers of America. Here's our signature Silver Screen Capture take on ten categories of films to
- [Guadagnino and Chalamet Reunite in Peculiar, Absorbing "Bones and All"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-bones-and-all-2022/) - Taylor Russell and Timothee Chalamet make fine young cannibals in Luca Guadagnino's audacious and astonishing '80s-set body horror romance Bones and All (B+). This walk on the wild side chronicles a twee twosome who feast on flesh, and there's generally sufficient allegory to transcend the most gruesome episodes. Opposite the mesmerizing central couple who very comfortably occupy
- [Chalamet is "Wonka" in Charming Candy-Colored Prequel](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-wonka-2023/) - Prequel Wonka with Chalamet a charming candy-coated delight.
- [Indian Import "RRR: Rise Roar Revolt" Will Keep a Grin On Your Face for its Duration](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-rrr-rise-roar-revolt-2022/) - Suspend your disbelief and strap yourself in for an unexpected stunt spectacular with equally epic heart. S.S. Rajamouli’s go-for-broke bromantic adventure RRR: Rise Roar Revolt (A) is the breakneck tale of two intertwined freedom fighters on a mission to save a little girl and discover the bounds of brotherhood and loyalty before ultimately liberating the
- [Misbegotten "Lightyear" Doesn't Have Much of a Friend in Me](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-lightyear-2022/) - The outer space curse plaguing Disney from infinity to The Black Hole, Treasure Planet, John Carter, Mars Needs Moms and beyond has not yet been lifted. Director /co-writer Angus MacLane’s Toy Story prequel/ spinoff Lightyear (C+) stays largely grounded on an uninspiring planet and surrounds its bland titular space ranger protagonist with dubious sidekicks. It’s
- [Kristen Stewart Captures the Soul of Princess Diana in “Spencer”](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-spencer-2021/) - Although it joins Eyes Wide Shut and Die Hard in the “I guess it's a Christmas movie” pantheon, Pablo Larraín's biographical psychological drama Spencer (A-), about the Yuletide weekend in which Princess Diana chooses to split from the royal family, is a melancholy masterpiece. Kristen Stewart is luminous in the lead role, brilliantly humanizing a
- [Portman is Perfection in Peculiar Biopic "Jackie"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-jackie/) - A peculiar fugue for both a nation in mourning and for a woman having a near out-of-body crisis to preserve the legacy of her slain husband, Pablo Larrain's Jackie (B+) is a film that moves in mysterious ways. In the central role of Jacqueline Kennedy played out in the aftermath of JFK's assassination, in flashbacks
- ["Gladiator" (2000) a Rousing Action Melodrama](https://silverscreencapture.com/gladiator-2000-a-rousing-action-melodrama/) - Enter the coliseum ready for action-filled melodrama and a leading-man-is-born performance by Russell Crowe as Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (B). This rousing historical epic traces the title character, a former general rising from slavery through the ranks of the arena, determined to avenge the murders of his family and the emperor. Crowe is born for the
- [Immerse in First-Ever Filmmaker Haven at Coppola's Southern Home](https://silverscreencapture.com/worlds-first-filmmaker-hotel-coppola/) - The world’s first filmmaker hotel boasts full post-production, screening room theater, editorial wing, ADR suite, green room, a mini-sound stage and 27 guest rooms curated by Coppola.
- [Lee Isaac Chung Lends Lofty Funnel Vision to Delightful "Twisters"](https://silverscreencapture.com/lee-isaac-chung-lends-lofty-funnel-vision-to-delightful-twisters/) - Plan to get sucked up, whisked away and a bit wonderstruck by an utterly crowd-pleasing entry into this summer’s multiplex fare. Lee Isaac Chung’s 2024 action film Twisters (A), ostensibly a standalone sequel to the 1996 tornado disaster flick, is both practically and metaphorically about Americans coming together to weather the storm. Daisy Edgar-Jones and
- [Spoiler-Free Rave as “Deadpool & Wolverine" Match Wits and Weapons](https://silverscreencapture.com/spoiler-free-rave-as-deadpool-wolverine-match-wits-and-weapons/) - In the service of a more mature and madcap Marvel installment, Disney has cracked open its most violent and vulgar vaults to unleash a buddy comedy adventure with its own crass love language. The mouse is definitely out of the house with superkillafragilistic, zipadeedickjokes, hakunayomama abandon. Except for over-staying its welcome by a short hair,
- [Sundance Sensation “In the Summers,” Showcased at Out on Film Festival, Streams on Digital Platforms Nov. 5](https://silverscreencapture.com/top-sundance-2024-film-in-the-summers-depicts-snapshots-of-fractured-family/) - This Sundance award winner is a poetic and humanist glimpse at young women growing up while mesmerized and repulsed by an erratic father figure in New Mexico.
- [Streaming: Acclaimed Documentary Shows Women “Still Working 9 to 5” and Beyond for Equal Rights](https://silverscreencapture.com/wonderful-documentary-shows-why-women-are-still-working-9-to-5-and-beyond-for-equal-rights/) - Documentary explores women's rights movement and the impact of "9 to 5" film
- [Aside from Sly Keaton and Spry Ortega, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is a Double Negative](https://silverscreencapture.com/aside-from-sly-keaton-and-spry-ortega-beetlejuice-beetlejuice-is-a-double-negative/) - Director Tim Burton raises an undead franchise with a story so sputtering it seems more like a merciless cash grab than a creative revisit to the ghastly scene of the crime. Despite the nostalgia factor reserved for the 1988 original film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (C-) offers too little too late as characters return to their countryside
- [Georgia Public Broadcasting Interviews Silver Screen Capture on Prospects for "Megalopolis"](https://silverscreencapture.com/georgia-public-broadcasting-interviews-silver-screen-capture-on-prospects-for-megalopolis/) - Futuristic "Megalopolis" premieres at Cannes with Hollywood stars and Atlanta credits - and my commentary on Georgia Public Broadcasting about Francis Ford Coppola’s cinematic universe
- [The Intimate Drama of "Causeway" Features Two Powerhouse Performances](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-causeway-2022/) - Jennifer Lawrence and Brian Tyree Henry are the marvelous acting partners you didn’t know you needed headlining Lila Neugebauer’s debut film, the psychological drama Causeway (B). Lawrence is raw, effective and enchanting as a wounded veteran who reluctantly returns to her hometown of New Orleans where she befriends a similarly broken mechanic played with compelling
- [M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” is a Slow-Burn Setlist in Search of Thrills](https://silverscreencapture.com/m-night-shyamalans-trap-is-a-slow-burn-setlist-in-search-of-thrills/) - Want to know the identity of serial killer The Butcher, who smothers and scatters frightful fragments of his helpless victims for the world to witness? His name is M. Night Shyamalan, and two and a half decades since his brilliant trick ending Best Picture nominee, he’s been consistently guilty of serving up large helpings of
- ["Beetlejuice" (1988) Contains Bonkers Imagination](https://silverscreencapture.com/beetlejuice-1988-a-b-movie-of-bonkers-imagination/) - Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (B) takes the haunted house movie to a whole new level with Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin as a recently deceased couple trying to co-exist in the same bucolic household with an eccentric family including a goth girl played by Winona Ryder, plus the titular sleazy demon (Michael Keaton under outrageous prosthetics)
- [“Promised Land” (2012) a Compelling Cautionary Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/promised-land/) - Gus Van Sant's Promised Land (A-) is a thought-provoking small-town parable about the people we become when wrestling with the dual responsibilities of capitalism and being caretakers of the planet. Instead of taking a scorched-earth approach relying on histrionics or heavy-handed plot devices, co-screenwriter/actors Matt Damon and John Krasinski closely observe characters both native and
- ["Kinds of Kindness" a Misguided and Unpleasant Farce](https://silverscreencapture.com/kinds-of-kindness-a-folly-of-a-farce/) - Three barely interconnected satirical stories by writer/director Yorgos Lanthemos comprise the misbegotten anthology Kinds of Kindness (D) with the same ensemble of actors rotating through various roles. This trio of contemporary relationship tales unspools in descending appeal, and just as viewers may be throwing up one’s hands exclaiming, “At least it’s not boring,” it actually
- [Critical Dud "Despicable Me 4" Still a Box Office Blockbuster](https://silverscreencapture.com/critical-dud-despicable-me-4-a-likely-box-office-blockbuster/) - Discerning adult viewers may find themselves waiting all too often for a once-in-a-Minion moment of inspiration in this summer’s barely passable kid-friendly animated sequel. Chris Renaud and Patrick Delage’s Despicable Me 4 (D+) finds reformed supervillain Gru (voice of Steve Carrell) on the run with his family from revenge-seeking criminal mastermind Maxime Le Mal (voiced
- [Voyeuristic "MaXXXine" Offers Little Worth Seeing](https://silverscreencapture.com/voyeuristic-maxxxine-offers-little-worth-seeing/) - The third film of director Ti West’s stylish trilogy departs the Texas terrain of chainsaw massacre homage (X) and Technicolor melodrama pastiche (Pearl) to culminate in a 1980’s-set Hollywood thriller vibe, but alas MaXXXine (D) loses its novelty fast. Aside from nailing the nostalgia and period detail of the mean streets and backlots of a
- ["Deadpool" (2016) a Hilarious Adult Comic Book Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-deadpool/) - Wielding a war arsenal ranging from zingers to Zambonis, comfortable going commando for confrontations and partial to the musical stylings of Wham! to set the mood, the titular hero of Tim Miller's Deadpool (A-) leapfrogs most recent films in the comic book genre in terms of both action and comedy in a single bound. Ryan
- [“Lost Highway” is Trippy Lynch](https://silverscreencapture.com/lost-highway/) - David Lynch’s Lost Highway (C-) is a film noir with Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette that loses its way with some plotting hokum about characters who drift out of each other’s souls. It’s a jarring, disconnecting ride that starts with promise and goes off the rails. There is one genuine moment of terror on the
- [“The Rainmaker” an Enjoyable Underdog Legal Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/rainmaker/) - SaveIt's far from vintage Francis Ford Coppola work, but there's certainly some pep to the step in the law procedural drama The Rainmaker (B). Matt Damon is an engaging lead, and Coppola plumbs family dynamics and back story to excellent effect. The film is also notable for a solid supporting cast including Danny DeVito, John
- [Dreaming of Roman Empire and Inventive Lodging: Leaving a Piece of "Megalopolis" in Georgia](https://silverscreencapture.com/dreaming-of-roman-empire-and-humble-lodging-leaving-a-piece-of-megalopolis-in-georgia/) - According to some fun Peachtree City, Georgia public documents and public zoning hearings from 2022, a local news story and the wonderment of my own eyes: "The motel ... purchased ... by ... LLC of Francis Ford Coppola, named the All Movie Motel ... began submitting building permits ... to renovate and make major changes
- [“Inside Out 2” Pulls the Levers of Teen Trauma](https://silverscreencapture.com/inside-out-2-pulls-the-levers-of-teen-trauma/) - In Disney-Pixar’s latest sequel, viewers trip through the wires of a pubescent protagonist as metaphorical mental health minions in her brain try to highlight all the feels. Kelsey Mann’s CGI animated adventure Inside Out 2 (B-) is breakneck and brisk and should entertain the kids but isn’t particularly distinguished in terms of plot, characterization or
- [Popcorn Action of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” Could Kick-Start Summer Box Office](https://silverscreencapture.com/popcorn-action-of-bad-boys-ride-or-die-could-kick-start-summer-box-office/) - Sometimes it’s nice to witness a summer movie that’s simply an easy, breezy escape. Bad Boys: Ride or Die (B-), helmed by the director duo collectively known as Adil & Bilall, is as routine as a buddy action movie comedy can possibly be, and yet it moves briskly among some fun set pieces and showcases
- ["Django Unchained" is Tarantino's Revisionist Western](https://silverscreencapture.com/django-unchained/) - Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (D+) just isn't funny or insightful enough to get away with tackling American slavery. It's difficult to juxtapose the brutality of heatboxes and lynchings with Quentin's quips. Christopher Waltz is awesome, Jamie Foxx is wasted as a silent type and Leonardo DiCaprio misfires a bit as the three primary players in this
- [For Your Consideration: “I Saw the TV Glow” ](https://silverscreencapture.com/for-your-consideration-i-saw-the-tv-glow/) - The tradition of film protagonists who pine for prime time glory has whisked away a portly Baltimore heroine with fabulous flair and hair to break bandstand barriers, a Brighton Beach widow to risk addiction en route to game show gains and a failed comedian to pursue his darkest impulses with a sinister smile on a
- [Summer Film Season Gets Middling Opener in "The Fall Guy"](https://silverscreencapture.com/summer-film-season-gets-middling-opener-in-the-fall-guy/) - The comedy/action remake of a classic TV series comes in roaring like a lion and devolves into a cat nap. Stunt coordinator-turned-director David Leitch’s The Fall Guy (B-) contains an abundance of awesome ingredients, including some outrageous pratfalls, fabulous soundtrack needle-drops and charismatic leads Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt as stuntman and director, respectively, with
- [Mad Max Prequel ”Furiosa” Values Spectacle Over Story or Characters](https://silverscreencapture.com/mad-max-prequel-furiosa-values-spectacle-over-story-or-characters/) - Imaginative armored transportation lines up in formation within dystopian deserts of such epic expanse that it truly feels like the wasteland of a vast apocalypse, but there are few characters to care much about aboard or in sight in George Miller’s perfunctory prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (C-). The visionary filmmaker establishes a world
- [Hawke Family Imaginatively Channels Feral Muse into Unconventional Storytelling “Wildcat” Triumph](https://silverscreencapture.com/hawke-family-imaginatively-channels-feral-muse-into-unconventional-storytelling-wildcat-triumph/) - The young man who came of age celebrating dead poets gracefully plumbs a tantalizing tortured prose department where a next gen Hawke memorably portrays a legendary artist as a young woman. Ethan Hawke co-writes and directs, and Maya Hawke plays iconoclast author Flannery O’Connor in the soulful conversation-starter Wildcat (A). Dutiful Catholic O’Connor’s short life
- [Spanish Oscar Candidate “Society of the Snow” is Thrilling Survival Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/spains-oscar-candidate-for-best-international-film-society-of-the-snow-comes-to-netflix-january-4-early-review/) - "Society of the Snow" film is recommended
- [”Mean Girls” Musical Movie Inconsistently Fetching](https://silverscreencapture.com/mean-girls-musical-movie-not-all-that-fetching/) - There’s some funny content and a delicious villainess, but the Mean Girls remake rarely finds a consistent reason for being a musical.
- ["Problemista" is Droll, Deadpan and Delicious](https://silverscreencapture.com/problemista-is-droll-deadpan-and-delicious/) - New York City’s most unassuming guy and the world’s most over-assertive woman forge an unlikely relationship at the center of this refreshingly off-kilter satire. Julio Torres writes, directs and stars in the surrealist comedy Problemista (B+). He plays Alejandro, a South American immigrant and aspiring toy designer and who's struggling to bring his unusual ideas
- ["Love Lies Bleeding" is a Trippy Romantic Thriller from 2024 Sundance](https://silverscreencapture.com/love-lies-bleeding-is-a-trippy-romantic-thriller-from-2024-sundance/) - Kristen Stewart stars in a bizarre love story revenge drama that debuted as a Sundance midnight movie.
- [Hometown Glory: "The South Got Something to Say" a Highlight of Atlanta Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/hometown-glory-the-south-got-something-to-say-a-hip-hop-highlight-of-atlanta-film-festival/) - Both a venerable newspaper and a half-century of long-gestating music and cultural movement reclaim global relevance in the excellent documentary The South Got Something to Say (A), directed by The Horne Brothers as the first film created and curated by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. The film, presented this week in competition at the Atlanta Film
- [The Cars are the Stars in "Furious 7"](https://silverscreencapture.com/furious-7/) - The cars are the stars, and the wheels in the sky keep on turning in James Wan's automotive aerial action ballet Furious 7 (B). Over the top in nearly every way, this popcorn flick assembles the gang of driving adventurers led by the minimally expressive Vin Diesel to thwart a British baddie (Jason Statham), conquer
- [Steamy Streamer "The Idea of You" a Hit of Atlanta Film Festival, Now on Prime Video](https://silverscreencapture.com/steamy-streamer-the-idea-of-you-plays-on-prime-video/) - It’s time to say bye, bye, bye to myths about age gap relationships as a 40-year-old divorcee single mom embarks on a love affair with the 24-year-old frontman of a fictional hit boy band. Built on the star-powered shoulders of Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, Michael Showalter’s rom-dram The Idea of You (B) is an
- [Find Yourself in No Man’s Land in Powerfully Provocative "Civil War"](https://silverscreencapture.com/find-yourself-in-no-mans-land-in-alex-garlands-powerfully-provocative-civil-war/) - The discourse sure to result from the release of Alex Garland’s sobering action drama Civil War (A) is akin to the elucidating actions of his central quartet of war correspondents and photographers: simply, it’s all about the processing. Garland’s brilliant film documents several days in America’s fictional second civil war through the lens of journalists
- [2024 Atlanta Film Festival Includes 27 World Premieres](https://silverscreencapture.com/2024-atlanta-film-festival-includes-27-world-premieres/) - Movies such as "Sing Sing" and "I Saw the TV Glow" are among the marquee movies at the Atlanta Film Festival.
- ["The People's Joker" Doesn’t Justify its Affront to IP Law](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-peoples-joker-doesnt-justify-its-affront-to-ip-law/) - There hasn’t been a more fascinating “tied up in right’s issues” guerrilla indie since 2013’s Escape from Tomorrow, the paranoid thriller secretly filmed and set entirely in Walt Disney World. Operating under the loosest definition of parody, The People’s Joker (D+), directed by, co-written by and starring Vera Drew, premiered at 2022’s Toronto Film Festival
- [Julia Louis-Dreyfus Plays to Her Comic Strengths in "You Hurt My Feelings"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-you-hurt-my-feelings-2023/) - Casting Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a neurotic New Yorker hardly seems novel, but the brassy comedienne’s latest starring turn emerges as an enjoyable lark with ample doses of heart and hilarity beneath the hard edges. Writer/director Nicole Holofcener’s dramedy You Hurt My Feelings (B+) features the high-strung star in a winning, old-fashioned comedy of manners with
- [Young Asians Get the Most of "Shortcomings" in Sundance Dramedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-shortcomings-2023/) - Adapted by Adrian Tomine from his own graphic novel and directed by first-time filmmaker Randall Park, the Sundance comedy-drama Shortcomings (B+) is an enjoyable contemporary take on being a young Asian-American male in American society. The story’s moody protagonist, an underemployed movie theatre manager and lousy boyfriend, is winningly played by Justin H. Min. His
- [Christoper Nolan Makes Interior Adventure of "Oppenheimer" Splendidly Cinematic](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-oppenheimer-2023/) - Like Oliver Stone’s JFK more than three decades ago, Christopher Nolan’s epic of the so-called “father of the atomic bomb” Oppenheimer (A) examines the public life and significant trials of a misunderstood man from history buoyed by clever cross-cutting and prestigious panache. It’s perhaps Nolan’s most conventional movie to date, and yet every beat of
- [Pop Music Phenomenon Gets Big-Screen Treatment in "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-2023/) - The country crossover whirling dervish who has overtaken much of modern pop cultural consciousness appears to stop all space and time for an epic concert film that feels like an interplanetary transmission of what it feels like to come of age while expressing highs and lows through multi-genre sonic storytelling. Sam Wrench’s concert documentary Taylor
- [“Thanksgiving” Puts the Ritual Killing in a Formerly Horror-less Holiday](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-thanksgiving-2023/) - Thanksgiving film is a solid slasher movie.
- ["Dream Scenario" with Nicolas Cage Shows Comedic Nightmare of Newfound Fame](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-dream-scenario-2023/) - Nicolas Cage is effective as the man who shows up in everyone's dreams.
- [Brotherly Love, Wrestling Nostalgia on Display in "Iron Claw" Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-iron-claw-2023/) - A powerful Zac Efron headlines effective wrestling drama "Iron Claw"
- [Trio of Talented Actresses Give "Color Purple" Movie Musical New Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-color-purple-2023/) - Despite uneasy musical moments in first hour, the 2023 Color Purple gains transcendent power.
- [“All of Us Strangers” a Poignant Heartbreaker ](https://silverscreencapture.com/all-of-us-strangers-a-poignant-dramatic-heartbreaker/) - The film All of Us Strangers mixes fantasy and tragedy and is recommended.
- [Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” Often Fascinating](https://silverscreencapture.com/michael-manns-ferrari-often-fascinating/) - Michael Mann's "Ferrari" Often Fascinating
- [“Indigo Girls” Documentary a Rollicking, Revelatory Look at Signature Duo](https://silverscreencapture.com/indigo-girls-movie-offers-rollicking-revelatory-look-at-signature-duo/) - Pop music stardom is an uneasy fit for the idiosyncratic women of one of the State of Georgia’s most popular exports, but this steely duo’s combination of vulnerability and authenticity expresses a profound harmony powerful enough to heal an aching world. Director Alexandria Bombach’s joy-balm of a career chronicle Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After
- [“Monkey Man” Not the Knockout Anticipated](https://silverscreencapture.com/monkey-man-not-the-knockout-anticipated/) - The “tonal” eclipse arrived early. Despite early buzz comparing the film favorably to Rocky, RRR, John Wick and Die Hard, the India-set revenge thriller Monkey Man (C), directed by and starring Dev Patel, is Jai-ho-hum. Other than the intrigue intrinsic in the exotic location, there’s not much creative or new going on in this picture.
- [Romantic Drama "Greatest Hits" on Hulu Feels Like Mainly B-Sides](https://silverscreencapture.com/romantic-drama-greatest-hits-on-hulu-feels-like-mainly-b-sides/) - The central female of Ned Benson’s romantic fantasy film The Greatest Hits (C) gets literally swept back in time to the moment her deceased boyfriend was still alive each time she hears a song, be they memorable tunes by Roxy Music, Beach House or the Tune-Yards or even a terrible ear-worm jingle about donating automobiles
- [Food and Romance are on Display in “The Taste of Things”](https://silverscreencapture.com/food-and-romance-are-on-delightful-sensory-overload-in-the-taste-of-things/) - The central couple of Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things (aka La Passion de Dodin Bouffant) (B-) finds their best way of communicating to one another is through gourmet cooking, and this French film is a series of gastronomic love letters between Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche. Call it Culinary Paradiso. The film is
- [“Remembering Gene Wilder” is Fond Farewell to Beloved Actor](https://silverscreencapture.com/remembering-gene-wilder-is-fond-farewell-to-beloved-actor/) - One of the great comic actors of film is immortalized with a warm tribute in Ron Frank’s documentary Remembering Gene Wilder (B), chock-full of clips, interviews, behind the scenes footage and the title subject’s own narration from the audiobook of his 2005 memoir. Mel Brooks is always an enjoyable interview, and he doesn’t disappoint here
- [“Room” (2015) is Effective Intimate Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/room-2015/) - The central gimmick of Lenny Abrahamson's Room (B) - of mother and son imprisoned in a secluded shed for many years - peaks early; and after the inevitable escape attempt, there's nowhere else to go as the plot plumbs the psychological aftermath. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay give breakthrough performances as a family forged in
- ["(500) Days of Summer" a Romcom with Innovative Structure](https://silverscreencapture.com/500-days-summer/) - Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer (B+) is a charming and sophisticated romantic comedy featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel as young people searching for love amidst the iciness and irony of modern Los Angeles. The film is enriched by its nonlinear structure in which the 500 primary days of the central duo's relationship are told
- [Comedic “21 Jump Street” a Showcase for Central Stars](https://silverscreencapture.com/21-jump-street-2012/) - Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's very loose comedic remake of an '90's police TV series of the same name, 21 Jump Street (B+) is a riotously funny buddy comedy about older guys posing as high schoolers to help bring down a drug ring. The unlikely pairing of schlubby, hilarious Jonah Hill with hunky and surprisingly
- ["Crumb" Offers Offbeat Documentary Lead](https://silverscreencapture.com/crumb/) - Terry Zwigoff’s profound documentary Crumb (A-) covers the life of an underground artist and his dysfunctional family with brazen and bizarre panache. Scored with nickelodeon-style three-penny opera music and riddled with the art that made its subject famous, the film chronicles Robert Crumb’s disturbing influences and counter-cultural outputs (he’s the guy who first shocked with
- [Despite Inspirational Story, “One Life” is "One-Note”](https://silverscreencapture.com/despite-inspirational-story-one-life-is-one-note/) - A case of a miraculously story told too conventionally, One Life (C), directed by John Hawes, splits its time between 1939 and 1987 with Johnny Flynn and Anthony Hopkins both portraying British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, who helped save hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from the Nazis on the eve of World War II. Hopkins is
- [Stephen Michael Brown Shares 2024 Oscars Picks with NPR](https://silverscreencapture.com/stephen-shares-march-10-2024-oscars-picks-with-npr/) - Silver Screen Capture weighs in with perspectives ahead of this weekend’s big reveal. https://www.gpb.org/news/2024/03/07/oscars-preview-which-films-have-georgia-connections Additionally, here are details about our Oscars viewing party:
- ["Wonder Woman" is Magnificent Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-wonder-woman-2017/) - Director Patty Jenkins and star Gal Gadot lasso a true kickstart to the summer movie season with grit and girlpower, spunk and splendor in the satisfying superhero movie Wonder Woman (B+). After an origin story prologue on Amazon island where warrior Diana grows up with a peacekeeping destiny and mentorship from Robin Wright, the narrative
- [“Anatomy of a Fall” is an Exhilarating Domestic Puzzle](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-anatomy-of-a-fall-2023/) - "Anatomy of a Fall" film is Stephen Michael Brown's favorite movie of 2023.
- [Jennifer Lawrence Lends Respectability to Adult Comedy Genre in Fun "No Hard Feelings"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-no-hard-feelings-2023/) - A sweet story of unconventional friendship disguised as a raunchy comedy, Gene Stupntisky’s No Hard Feelings (B) pairs movie luminary Jennifer Lawrence with rising Broadway star Andrew Barth Feldman as characters meeting under unusual circumstances and creating quite a bond. The young man’s wealthy parents (an amusing if underused Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti) want
- [Cloak and Dagger Double Agents of “Argylle” Overstay Welcome](https://silverscreencapture.com/cloak-and-dagger-double-agents-of-argylle-overstay-welcome/) - So insistent on its own cleverness as it churns out plot twists like sorcerer’s apprentice brooms, Matthew Vaughn’s meta spy thriller comedy Argylle (C) has the cumulative effect of wearing out its welcome. Bryce Dallas Howard plays a cat-loving spy novelist drawn into a real-life adventure similar to the events in her popular book series,
- [Video: Stephen Michael Brown's Oscar Predictions in Top 8 Categories](https://silverscreencapture.com/video-stephen-michael-browns-oscar-predictions-in-top-8-categories/)
- [Comedy Musical "Less Than Kosher" a Surprising Take on Jewish Identity](https://silverscreencapture.com/comedy-musical-less-than-kosher-breaks-through-with-surprising-take-on-jewish-identity/) - "Less than Kosher" is a winning musical comedy fantasy about a "Bad Jew" who reluctantly becomes a cantor.
- ["Smile" With Enjoyment at a Horror Movie Worth Seeing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-smile-2022/) - Put on your brave face because Parker Finn’s supernatural movie Smile (B) is one of the year’s most terrifying horror films. The plot follows a therapist, gracefully played by Sosie Bacon, who appears to be losing her mind after witnessing a bizarre tragedy involving a troubled patient, portrayed so well by Caitlin Stasey that the
- [Aronofsky’s “Postcard from Earth” a Must-See Nature Film at Vegas Sphere](https://silverscreencapture.com/aronofsky-postcard-from-earth-a-must-see-nature-film-at-vegas-sphere/) - A new movie built for a special venue is engineered to blow your mind and, despite its gargantuan magnitude, possesses small spellbinding ways to change the way audiences view our world. There hasn’t been an immersive movie before quite like Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth (A-), developed as an installation for The Sphere in Las
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival Closes with “Shari and Lamb Chop”](https://silverscreencapture.com/atlanta-jewish-film-festival-closes-with-shari-and-lamb-chop/) - Like Sweeney Todd and his glistening knives or Tom Brady and his spiraling football, famed ventriloquist Shari Lewis was wielding something mighty at the end of her arm. Lisa D’Apolito’s feel-good documentary Shari and Lamb Chop (B+) chronicles the multi-hyphenate singer, dancer, comedienne, educator and puppeteer through a veritable variety show of every major era
- [Dreary "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" Makes You Want to Time Travel to Pick a Different Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-indiana-jones-and-the-dial-of-destiny-2023/) - This is the Never Say Never Again of the Indy franchise with a curious sense not everything is up to peak creativity, and perhaps the filmmakers should have heeded the final three words of that creed. James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (C), chronicling the raiders of a steampunk timepiece with rumored
- [Sophie Nélisse is Stirring as Real-Life Holocaust Heroine in AJFF Opener](https://silverscreencapture.com/sophie-nelisse-is-stirring-as-real-life-holocaust-heroine-in-ajff-opener/) - Our heroine thwarts her antagonist in the most unlikely of places, right under his nose and abode, in Louise Archambault’s thrilling and often moving dramatic WWII-era film Irena’s Vow (B). Real-life Roman Catholic nurse Irena Gut, splendidly played by Sophie Nélisse, makes a life-changing decision to be resilient in the face of evil after she
- [Duvernay’s Ambitious “Origin” Tackles Society’s Great Divides](https://silverscreencapture.com/ava-duvernays-ambitious-origin-tackles-root-of-societys-firewalls/) - Ava Duvernay’s ambitious “Origin” is a brilliant new film imagines a world in which people outlast a system that makes outcasts.
- [Ten Observations About the Oscar Nominations of 2023 Films](https://silverscreencapture.com/ten-observations-about-the-oscar-nominations-of-2023-films/) - Stephen Michael Brown shares ten observations coming out of the January 23, 2024 nomination announcements for the March 10, 2024 Oscars
- [Sundance Sensation “Ponyboi” is Unexpected Protagonist](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-sensation-ponyboi-is-unexpected-protagonist/) - Esteban Arango’s rollicking rollercoaster of a Sundance Film Festival entry Ponyboi (B+) features an unconventional intersex protagonist who shows there’s no clear pathway to forge between point X and point Y when it comes to the thrill of a crime caper. This neon-illuminated film glides successfully on the resplendent and deeply touching performance of River
- [”Layla” is Belle of the Ball at 2024 Sundance Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/layla-is-belle-of-the-ball-at-sundance-festival/) - Writer/director Amrou Al-Kadhi’s title character of Layla (B-) is a Muslim drag performer in East London with a one-of-a-kind story to tell in one of several Sundance Film Festival 2024 entries focused on queer identity. Bilal Hasna is mostly sensational in the central role of what is ostensibly a romance film, playing opposite Louis Greatorex,
- [”Godzilla Minus One” Makes History](https://silverscreencapture.com/godzilla-minus-one-makes-history/) - “Godzilla Minus One” breathes historic life and emotional resonance into tale of a radioactive reptile’s destruction.
- [Sundance Documentary ”Every Little Thing” Shows Hummingbirds Learning to Fly Again](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-documentary-every-little-thing-shows-hummingbirds-learning-to-fly-again/) - A surprising film debuted at Sundance 2024, and you could say it’s got buzz. And whistles, beeps and chirps. Sally Aitken’s documentary Every Little Thing (B) is a gentle, non-ironic glimpse at the life’s work of a West coast woman named Terry Masear, who operates a hummingbird rescue mission out of her L.A. home. This consummate
- ["Zone of Interest" Feels Like a College Thesis Film Project Stretched to Feature Length](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-zone-of-interest-2023/) - The premise of a home sweet home minutes from atrocity succeeds only in activating one’s mind about what’s not on the screen.
- [Sundance International Feature “Veni Vidi Vici” Agonizes Over One-Note Argument](https://silverscreencapture.com/sundance-international-feature-veni-vedi-vici-agonizes-over-one-note-argument/) - Just because it debuted at Sundance doesn’t mean it’s any good. And co-directors Daniel Hoesl and Julia Niemann’s German dark comedy Veni Vidi Vici (D+) certainly doesn’t seem to be here to make any friends. It’s a stark portrait of a billionare crime family living in its own bucolic bubble, unimpeachable in every way as
- [Two Wonderful Performances Buoy Inspiring "Nyad" Sports Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-nyad-2023/) - Epic odysseys featuring protagonists traversing earth’s vast waters can add another legend to maritime mythology as Annette Bening assumes the titular role of Diana the sixtysomething marathon swimmer in Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Nyad (B+). Bening is a fascinating force of nature in the role of a real-life iconoclast who harbors the dream
- [“Little Mermaid" Kicks Off Disney's Golden Age with Blissful, Musical Animated Aquatic Love Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-little-mermaid-1989/) - Structured like an underwater Broadway musical from the heroine’s bubbly “I want” song through kick-lines on conch shells, Disney’s The Little Mermaid (A), directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, is aquatic and sonic enchantment on every cell of hand-drawn animation. Viewers will be immediately taken by rebellious teen mermaid Ariel voiced by Jodi Benson,
- ["Christopher Columbus: The Discovery" is Adrift](https://silverscreencapture.com/christopher-columbus-discovery/) - Director John Glen, who has made a career out of taking the final gasps of life out of creaky James Bond film entries in the late '80's, originally cast Timothy Dalton but found an even more bland leading man named George Correface to play the title character of Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (D+). Like the
- [Whitney Houston Gets Solid Showcase in "The Bodyguard"](https://silverscreencapture.com/bodyguard/) - Elvis in Blue Hawaii. Madonna in Shanghai Surprise. History has not been kind for pop superstar cross-overs into film, but Whitney Houston actually lifts director Mick Jackson's The Bodyguard (B-) into an often stylish and engaging romantic adventure with music. Paired with a stoic Kevin Costner as her protector, Houston capably plays a souped-up version
- ["Bob Roberts" a Solid Political Satire](https://silverscreencapture.com/bob-roberts/) - Murphy Brown only scratched the surface. The cultural elite of the Hollywood left-wing has achieved its most fulfilling revenge through actor Tim Robbins' auspicious directorial debut, Bob Roberts (B+), a scathing parody of ultra-conservatism. This is a gloriously partisan film of deep-rooted anger at the likes of Rush Limbaugh using a quasi-documentary format to chronicle
- [Gus Van Sant Creates Dark Comedy "To Die For"](https://silverscreencapture.com/die-1995/) - Even weather girls get the blues as Nicole Kidman proves in Gus Van Sant's dark comedy To Die For (B-). Kidman's gleeful portrayal of a small-town seductress is a central reason to see this satire of the heights to which the ambitious will scale to achieve their visions of fame. Joaquin Phoenix and Matt Dillon
- [Kevin Smith's "Mallrats" Crude, Sometimes Funny and Fairly Aimless](https://silverscreencapture.com/mallrats/) - Clerks writer/director Kevin Smith makes a change of venue to cover the food court jesters inhabiting the world of Mallrats (C), a slightly more mainstream and less funny offering from the indie auteur. Upgrading to Hollywood talent such as Jason Lee and Shannen Doherty and reverting to sight gags that sometimes seem more in-your-face than
- [Rob Reiner's "The American President" is Brilliant Comic Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/american-president/) - Politics make strange bedfellows in Rob Reiner's The American President (A) which tells a charming tale of a widowed president (Michael Douglas) who falls in love with a political operative (Annette Bening). The leads are remarkable and sink their teeth into Aaron Sorkin's snappy screenplay. This in a rare romantic comedy that gets a very
- [“Casino” Compelling as Scorsese Changes Gangland Venue](https://silverscreencapture.com/casino/) - A movie about the motives of mob men with simply a change of venue from his usual NYC neighborhoods isn't too much of a gamble for Martin Scorsese; but few do this genre better, and the director gives Las Vegas its dressing-down in Casino (B-), by novelist Nicholas Pileggi. In style and structure, it's often
- ["Waiting to Exhale" Puts Spotlight on  Black Women's Stories](https://silverscreencapture.com/waiting-exhale/) - Take a deep breath. Director Forest Whitaker is about to showcase the struggles and triumphs of a year in the life of four extraordinary women in Waiting to Exhale (B). Angela Bassett is the standout in the circle of friends as a woman who puts her dreams on hold for a man who disappoints her.
- [Michael Mann's "Heat" Brings Out the Big Guns](https://silverscreencapture.com/heat/) - Michael Mann's Heat (A-) is a high-gloss L.A. crime caper with suspense and thrills to spare, but the main attraction is getting to watch Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino turn in outstanding performances. They don't share much screen time; but when they do, it's explosive.
- ["Toy Story" an Animated Breakthrough](https://silverscreencapture.com/toy-story/) - The classic toys that come to life in John Lasseter's Toy Story (A-) are among the most endearing new creations developed for the screen. Pull-string cowboy Woody (Tom Hanks) and rival-turned-pal astronaut toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) preside over a pixel playroom of great characters including Mr. Potatohead, Slinky Dog and other favorites come to
- [Mike Figgis Directed "Leaving Las Vegas" is an Unsentimental Romantic Masterpiece](https://silverscreencapture.com/leaving-las-vegas/) - Meet Ben and tonic as director Mike Figgis addresses an addicted man and the woman who helps redeem him in the outstanding drama Leaving Las Vegas (A+). Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue give career-best performances as the alcoholic and prostitute who enter each other’s lives when they both most need the reflection and support of
- [Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" a Deft Comedy of Manners](https://silverscreencapture.com/sense-sensibility/) - Emma Thompson aptly adapts Jane Austin in her screenwriting debut for Ang Lee’s splendid comedy of manners Sense and Sensibility (A). Co-starring the luminous Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, Thompson the actress and writer unleashes tart exchanges as gossipy socialites, sycophants, snobs and civil servants find their way in a period piece about discovering love
- [Anthony Hopkins Shines in Oliver Stone Biopic "Nixon"](https://silverscreencapture.com/nixon/) - Oliver Stone’s Nixon (B) is a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of one of America’s most controversial presidents. Stone uses some of his trademark visual bombast, but it’s his rare moments of tenderness that humanize the president and Anthony Hopkins’ touching performance that lift the film above revisionist history.
- ["Il Postino: The Postman" a Recommended International Feature](https://silverscreencapture.com/il-postino-postman-1995/) - Michael Radford’s Italian import Il Postino: The Postman (B+) is a celebration of love and the human language, buoyed by poetry and romantic awakening. Chronicling a friendship between a simpleton delivery man and his mentor, the exiled poet Pablo Neruda, the film is a touching display of self-discovery as the postman learns to express the
- ["Mr. Holland's Opus" Makes Sweet and Sentimental Music](https://silverscreencapture.com/mr-hollands-opus/) - Richard Dreyfuss soars as a music teacher inspired by the people who love him in Stephen Herek’s Mr. Holland’s Opus (A-). This finely tuned film is filled with clichés and somehow still works, possibly because it deals with dreams deferred and the notion that even life’s smallest notes are part of a collective symphony. The
- [Terry Gilliam's "Twelve Monkeys" is Bizarre and Brilliant](https://silverscreencapture.com/twelve-monkeys/) - Visionary director Terry Gilliam comes back from the future in Twelve Monkeys (B+), an imaginative time travel fantasy with Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Inventive and moody, the film tames the eccentric filmmaker’s most savage instincts and sustains a very suspenseful and engaging thriller throughout.
- [Unfunny "House Arrest" is Grounded for Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/house-arrest/) - Kevin Pollack and Jamie Lee Curtis star in Harry Winer's preposterous comedy House Arrest (F) about a bunch of kids who lock their bickering parents in the basement until they resolve their disputes. Billed as a family film, this pitiful exercise in annoyance wastes the talents of both its adult and child stars. It's kind
- [Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting" Takes You Through the Ringer](https://silverscreencapture.com/trainspotting/) - Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (B) is a veritable steam engine of a film showcasing the life of junkies from the other side of the tracks. Ewan McGregor charges onto the scene in a star-making performance, and Boyle’s grim, swirling visual odyssey gives viewers a one-way ticket to the human abyss. There’s a whole lot of surreal
- ["Independence Day" a Glorious Guilty Pleasure](https://silverscreencapture.com/independence-day/) - Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (B) is far-fetched craziness about an Alien assault on America, complete with an iconic explosion of The White House. But somehow when Will Smith and Bill Pullman board planes to kick some alien ass, there’s a strange swell of patriotism of something that makes this a fun and seminal film entertainment.
- [Jim Carrey's "Cable Guy" Unwelcome](https://silverscreencapture.com/cable-guy/) - Jim Carrey steals the show in director Ben Stiller’s lame comedic indictment of a world saturated by television, The Cable Guy (C). The comedian’s highjinks are funny in parts, but the film’s weighty messages often blunt the laughter in all the wrong places.
- ["Twister" an Average Supernatural Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/twister/) - Jan de Bont’s Twister (C-) is perpetually stuck in the suck zone. Cardboard characters played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt seem stationed in their roles to be ready when the big tornado effects come in to do their magic. It’s all a downward spiral.
- ["The Birdcage" is Hilarious Comedy of Manners](https://silverscreencapture.com/birdcage/) - Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are birds of a feather in Mike Nichols’ lightweight comedy The Birdcage (B), based on the French classic La Cage Aux Folles. Their tale of an alternative American family is filled with larger-than-life gags. But for all the preening queens run amuck, there are actually some nice domestic moments between
- ["From Dusk Till Dawn" Gets Grisly](https://silverscreencapture.com/dusk-till-dawn/) - Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn (D+) pairs George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in a poorly-conceived vampire slasher film. Although some suspense and stunts are funny and sustained, most of it is unsavory and unsatisfying.
- ["Evita" is a Respectable Movie Musical Revolution](https://silverscreencapture.com/evita/) - Pop goes the nation as Madonna assumes the role of Eva Peron in director Alan Parker’s faithful adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock opera Evita (A-). This sung-through political biography tells the rags-to-riches tale of Argentina’s most celebrated first lady with lush period detail, smashing musical numbers and surprisingly good sing-acting. Madonna was born for
- ["Sling Blade" is Surprisingly Sentimental](https://silverscreencapture.com/sling-blade/) - Slicing into the heart of the American Gothic with razor-sharp perception, writer/director/actor Billy Bob Thornton carves out a startling yarn with the genre-slashing masterpiece Sling Blade (A). Thornton crafts a singular portrait of the South and of a man faced with a moral dilemma that may cause him to resort to violence. Alternately sweet in
- ["Secrets and Lies" a Dry, Droll British Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/secrets-lies/) - Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies (B+) pairs Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as long-lost mother and daughter reuniting. Because Leigh uses an impromptu screenwriting technique with his actors, the focus is on the character revelations, especially since mom is white and daughter is black, but the story suffers a bit with not too much to
- [“The Pillow Book” an Exotic, Erotic Story of Romance, Revenge](https://silverscreencapture.com/pillow-book/) - An exotic ode to love, art and revenge, Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (A) stars Vivian Wu as a Japanese model in search of lovers who will paint on her body as part of their mating ritual with her. One of these men is a British translator played by Ewan McGregor, and a romantic entanglement
- ["Breaking the Waves" a Force of Nature](https://silverscreencapture.com/breaking-waves/) - In Breaking the Waves (A-), director Lars von Trier crafts an elegant, heart-wrenching epic about a woman guided to the edge of sanity by a moral quest that leaves her physically, mentally and emotionally vulnerable. Emily Watson shines in the central role of this chilling film that deftly blends pathos and transcendence.
- [We Find "Trial and Error" Guilty of Not Being Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/trial-error/) - In a season when Meg Ryan went grunge, Madonna struck a family-friendly pose and everyone on Friends tried to branch into movie stardom, it's a bit refreshing to watch Seinfeld star Michael Richards playing to his strengths as a man who has to pose as an attorney to defend a buddy. Jonathan Lynn's Trial &
- ["Scream 2" Provides Many Meta Thrills](https://silverscreencapture.com/scream-2/) - Wes Craven's Scream 2 (B-) tries to one-up its tongue-in-cheek predecessor by satirizing sequels, often with great success. But the film-within-a-film and the story-within-a-story conceits may sometimes make this a little too meta for its own good. Still it is twisty, thrilling and united the original cast with enough surprises that it stands on its
- ["Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" Takes You to Hilarious Place](https://silverscreencapture.com/romy-micheles-high-school-reunion/) - David Mirkin’s film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (B+) is a surprisingly winning female empowerment comedy with Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino posing as impresario inventors to wow the folks they want to school with as they return to their ten-year get-together. Splashes of neon color, smart flashbacks, spicy writing and a potpourri of
- ["Batman and Robin" Gets the Tone Wrong](https://silverscreencapture.com/batman-robin/) - Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin (D-) is a cluttered cacophony of hardware and hardbodies, of mechanical merchandising mayhem, madness and magnificent men in their flying machines. But there’s nary an ounce of human connection in a comic book adaptation that all of a sudden got too cluttered and silly for its own good.
- [Double Trouble:  Action of “Face/Off” is Great Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/faceoff/) - Director John Woo somehow gives plausibility to the notion of two men who switch faces for an adventure in Face/Off (B), and he does a great job staging the action. John Travolta and Nicolas Cage are effective in their roles as FBI agent and criminal mastermind in this cat and mouse thriller.
- ["L.A. Confidential" a Magnificent Hollywood Noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/l-confidential/) - Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential (A+) is a superb detective caper introducing American audiences to a trio of magnificent performers -- Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey -- as Hollywood cops circa 1953. The myth and illusion of Tinseltown versus the scandals and shakedowns is a wonder to behold. Kim Basinger is a symbol of
- [Empowering "Full Monty" Gives Peek into Male Fragility](https://silverscreencapture.com/full-monty/) - Incredible comedy is on full display in Peter Cattaneo's The Full Monty (A-) as the filmmaker explores the male mystique and physique in the wake of unemployment and inability to take care of one's family. A bunch of out-of-work and out-of-shape British blokes led by Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy resort to starting a an
- [“Titanic” is Simply Spectacular in Terms of Romance and Historical Sweep](https://silverscreencapture.com/titanic/) - James Cameron’s Titanic (A-) is an epic disaster spectacle mixed with an epic romance. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are the star-crossed lovers aboard the ill-fated ship. Their playful romantic sequences are the film’s heart. The effects and production design are also exquisite. I wasn’t wild about the framing device with Bill Paxton and Gloria
- ["Saving Private Ryan" Pays Tribute to Greatest Generation Through Search Party Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/saving-private-ryan/) - Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (B) has one of the most amazing, bloody and grueling first twenty minutes of war re-enactments ever committed to film with its beach invasion of Normandy. Unfortunately, the remaining film featuring a search for the title character is rather pedestrian. Tom Hanks and an ensemble of Hollywood A-listers lead the
- ["Gods and Monsters" a Gargantuan Emotional Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/gods-monsters/) - Bill Condon’s Gods and Monsters (A-) is a drama about the final days of Frankenstein film director James Whale, regally played by Ian McKellan, haunted by his WWI service and transfixed by his own homosexuality and his new gardener played by Brendan Fraser. Lynn Redgrave is outstanding as Whale’s disapproving housemaid. Superbly filmed and acted,
- ["Shakespeare in Love" is Rhapsodic Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/shakespeare-love/) - John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (A) is a splendid celebration of love and language as a female stage player (Gwyneth Paltrow) sneaks her way into 1593 London’s Rose Theatre troupe and into the heart of William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) himself. The central couple is quite charming as they find themselves falling into many best-of-the-Bard situations.
- ["Pleasantville" Showcases Modern Mores in Bygone Time](https://silverscreencapture.com/pleasantville/) - Gary Ross' Pleasantville (B) transports two 1990's teens (Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon) into an alternate 1950's sitcom reality, and the mores of the four passing decades get a dose of parody and pathos in a story that blends drama and comedy. Although quite entertaining, it pales a bit in comparison to the similarly themed Back
- [David Fincher's "Fight Club" Punches Modern Manly Toxicity and Consumerism in the Face](https://silverscreencapture.com/fight-club/) - David Fincher’s Fight Club (A-) is an awesome underground action drama with Edward Norton and Brad Pitt playing the opposite ends of the spectrum of modern men of today. Fed up with his WASP-y life, Norton’s character finds himself lured into a nihilistic world of fighting and vulgarity, where he can finally feel again. But
- ["Magnolia" Interlaces Complex Characters in California Milieu](https://silverscreencapture.com/magnolia/) - Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia (A) is a rich canvas of interweaving Los Angeles stories about the wounds people inflict on each other and the redemptive qualities the right people can bring to each other at just the right time and just the right moment. Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore are among the standout performers in
- ["American Beauty" Captures Malaise in Modern Suburban America](https://silverscreencapture.com/american-beauty/) - There is more than meets the eye behind both Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening’s picture-perfect marriage and nearly everything going on in their neighborhood in Sam Mendes’ revealing dark comedy American Beauty (A). The acting is superb and the satire biting in this cautionary tale with parallel tales of unhinged, unfulfilled adults and teens acting
- ["Election" is a Fabulously Funny Allegory of Modern Sensibilities Played Out in Student Body Politics](https://silverscreencapture.com/election-1999/) - Alexander Payne’s Election (A) is a hilariously dark comedy set in high school about the lengths one student (Reese Witherspoon) will go to rise to the top ranks of student government. Witherspoon’s “Tracy Flick” can heretofore be a metaphor for overly motivated political animals. Matthew Broderick is amusing as the teacher who may find he’s
- ["Phantom Menace" Values FX Over "Star Wars" Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/star-wars-phantom-menace/) - It’s the prequel turkey that will live in infamy: George Lucas’ Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (D). Presenting virtually no interesting characters that inhabit early galactic life and a storyline about tax disputes, the film sends two Jedi knights (Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson) with mullets and rat-tails and their piercingly annoying CGI
- ["Toy Story 2" Adds More Poignancy to the Playroom](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-toy-story-2/) - John Lasseter’s Toy Story 2 (B) expands the emotional landscapes of Pixar’s playscapes. The animation is stronger and the story more expansive, but the novelty isn’t quite as nifty. The energetic ensemble faces displacement due to Woody’s discovery of his origins in a televised Western puppet show, and adventure ensues. Woody gets a countrified love
- ["A Walk On The Moon" is a Watch with a Swoon](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-a-walk-on-the-moon/) - Tony Goldwyn's A Walk on the Moon (B+) is an unexpected sleeper of a melodrama and a highly recommended movie of 1999. An unfulfilled homemaker, played beautifully by Diane Lane, quietly suffers as the tumultuous events of the summer of 1969 unfold on the surface of her TV screen. But, when she invites a dashing
- ["Requiem for a Dream" is a Haunting and Hypnotic Interlaced Anthology of Addiction](https://silverscreencapture.com/requiem-dream/) - Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (A) is a haunting look at the effect of addiction through three interlocking stories. Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly are among the amazing actors headlining this ensemble. Shocking and mesmerizing visuals mark this audacious director’s wicked and direct style.
- ["Moulin Rouge!" is a Glorious Mash-Up of Tragic Romance Tropes and Full-Throated Creativity](https://silverscreencapture.com/moulin-rouge-2001/) - Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (A-) is a spellbinding romantic musical featuring modern-day songs by The Beatles, Elton John, Whitney Houston and more at the service of a fantasy Parisian-based story about a poet (Ewan McGregor) who falls in love with a courtesan (Nicole Kidman). Luhrmann’s bouncing-off-the-walls visuals slow down occasionally to feast eyes on the
- ["Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is a Fabulous Gender-Bending Musical Extravaganza](https://silverscreencapture.com/hedwig-angry-inch/) - John Cameron Mitchell directs and stars in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (A), a raucous rock musical about a transsexual lounge singer brought to America by a military man and given a botched sex change operation. Abandoned and left with the “angry inch” of the musical’s title, Hedwig sings about finding her other half in
- [Director Ron Howard and Russell Crowe Reunite for Wonderful "A Beautiful Mind"](https://silverscreencapture.com/beautiful-mind/) - Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (B+) is a 1940’s-set psychological drama starring Russell Crowe as a Princeton science and math prodigy who gets enlisted into some strange and secret experiments. Jennifer Connelly plays his long-suffering but supportive soul mate. The film is fascinating and surprising at times and is a great showcase for its fine
- [David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" a Mindbender of a Masterpiece](https://silverscreencapture.com/mulholland-drive/) - Brace yourself for David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (B+), a wild ride into the illusions of Hollywood where nothing is what it seems; or if it is, it won’t be for long. Naomi Watts is wonderful as a classic Lynch protagonist in a film that may or may not involve souls switching bodies, color-coded lights that
- ["In the Bedroom" is Potent Domestic Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/bedroom/) - Todd Field’s In the Bedroom (A-) is a suburban stunner that starts out as a romance between Nick Stahl and Marisa Tomei, then something awful happens, then it’s something much more. Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson play parents forced to face the aftermath of violence in this searing and perfectly acted piece. Field is masterful
- [Movie Version of "Chicago" One of the Best Big-Screen Musicals in Years](https://silverscreencapture.com/chicago/) - Rob Marshall’s 1924-set musical Chicago (A-) brings song and dance razzamatazz back to the screen as Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones take on the juicy roles of ladies who will kill for fame. Many musical numbers from the stage show become fantasy dream sequences in the film, which works beautifully. From the cell block tango
- ["X2: X-Men United" Mutates into Full-Fledged Action Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/x2-x-men-united/) - With the origin story and mythology behind him, Bryan Singer is free to plunge viewers right into the action of a cloak and dagger adventure with his ensemble of mutant superheroes in X2: X-Men United (B+). Few of the affairs are as fast or fresh as before, but it's fun to watch the deepening of characterizations
- [“Finding Nemo” an Animated Breakthrough](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-finding-nemo-2003/) - Andrew Stanton's Finding Nemo (A-) is a computer-generated treasure trove of aquatic animation featuring a winning school of voice talent including Albert Brooks as a cantankerous clownfish and Ellen DeGeneres as the forgetful regal tang named Dory. The story centers around losing your community and finding it again and sweeps the viewers along an amazing
- ["Kinsey" an Engrossing Glimpse at Sex Scholar's Complex Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/kinsey/) - Bill Condon’s Kinsey (A-) is a marvelous exploration of the life of a scientist who studied human sexuality in all of its forms. As played by Liam Neeson, it’s a revelatory performance, and so is Laura Linney’s as his wife. His controversies confound his expectations both scholarly and personally, leading to interpersonal drama. It’s a
- ["Passion of the Christ" Depicts Gruesome Crucifixion, Leaves Other Jesus Highlights on Cutting Room Floor](https://silverscreencapture.com/passion-christ/) - Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (C+) is a peculiar cinematic work: a re-creation of the bloody death of Jesus Christ, which we presume is intended as an exercise to depict the intensity of personal sacrifice suffered by man's ultimate martyr. As played by Jim Caviezel, the actor doesn't get much opportunity to act
- [Pixar’s “Incredibles” Lives Up to Name](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-incredibles/) - Building on a legacy that includes anthropomorphic toys, fish and cars, Brad Bird's entry into the Pixar universe, The Incredibles (B-) is one of the first to feature human protagonists. Like The Flintstones or The Jetsons, this animated situational comedy features a one-of-a-kind family. Because The Incredibles are all undercover superheroes, there's a fun dichotomy
- [“Spider-Man 2” Improves on Original](https://silverscreencapture.com/spider-man-2/) - Sam Raimi gets a bit more daring and delves into character a tad more in his superhero sequel Spider-Man 2 (B-), a remarkably more accomplished film than its predecessor, even though it is still weighed down by the missed casting opportunity occupied by the tepid twosome Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. There's a deeper sense of
- [Third Entry in Series "X-Men: The Last Stand" Shows Signs of Age](https://silverscreencapture.com/x-men-last-stand/) - Director Brett Ratner botches his shot at the helm of the third entry into an iconic comic book film series with X-Men: The Last Stand (C-). The characters are all back and look basically the same; but none move, talk or relate in the same way Bryan Singer set them up in past installments. Instead
- ["Borat" Movie Outreageous and Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/borat/) - Larry Charles' Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (A-) is a splendidly offensive mockumentary comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a vaguely Kazakh TV personality on a cross-country trip to showcase life in America and possibly to find and woo pop icon Pamela Anderson. An innocent abroad for the
- [I'm Telling You, You're Gonna Like Me: "Dreamgirls" Musical Movie Mostly Works](https://silverscreencapture.com/dreamgirls/) - Bill Condon's Dreamgirls (B) is a musical backstage drama with style and panache, but it's conflicted about whether or not the characters sing when they are not on stage. Musicals require a suspension of disbelief, for sure, but within the film, it should be consistent. So the stage numbers are great, and some of the
- [You'll Fall Slowly and Instantly in Love with Musical Almost-Romance "Once"](https://silverscreencapture.com/once/) - John Carney’s Once (B+) is a treasure box of a musical with an unassuming storyline showcasing a man and a woman who enter each other’s lives when they need each other most. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglova play the unnamed pair – he, a busking Irish guitarist and she, a Czech pianist, who find themselves
- ["Stardust" a Fun and Frisky Fairy Tale Geared to Adults](https://silverscreencapture.com/stardust/) - Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust (B+) is a whimsical adventure in the tradition of The Princess Bride. Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes and Robert DeNiro are standouts in this fantasy about getting over the walls that block our way to our dreams. Witches, pirates, unicorns, voodoo dolls and so much more are part of the journey ahead. This
- [Bigelow Gives Big Heart to "Hurt Locker"](https://silverscreencapture.com/hurt-locker/) - Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (A-) focuses on Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie as soldiers who dispose of bombs during the Iraq War and how they get deeper and deeper into their mission. Told with stunning authenticity and reverence for the work of the military, it’s a highly dramatic and exciting film as well as
- [ABBA, Dabba, Do! "Mamma Mia!" Gets Blockbuster Movie Treatment](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mamma-mia/) - Phyllida Lloyd’s film adaptation of her theatrical hit Mamma Mia! (B) is largely a joyful confection, taking its cues from the music catalogue of Swedish hitmakers ABBA to playfully chronicle how the plucky young female descendant of a 1979 “dancing queen” cavorting with three summer boyfriends on an exotic Greek isle endeavors to discover the
- [Lars von Trier Directs Disturbing "Antichrist" (2009)](https://silverscreencapture.com/antichrist-2009/) - Lars von Trier's Antichrist (C-) is a well acted and supremely disturbing art house horror film ostensibly about the grieving process by a couple for their deceased child and ultimately a bizarre requiem summoning imagery from the Biblical fall from grace at Eden through the mistreatment of women in Salem. Some of the metaphors and
- ["Avatar" (2009) Presents Immersive Effects for Flimsy Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/avatar/) - Suppose you created a gorgeous CGI world with breathtaking 3-D vistas and amazingly life-like aliens, and then you drop in a formulaic story, wooden actors and snooze-worthy dialogue? You get James Cameron’s Avatar (C), and I want my three hours back. Actually much of the action is rousing and many of the creative sci-fi effects
- ["A Single Man" is Perceptive Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/single-man/) - Latest Oscar bait update: Colin Firth is heartbreaking as a man grieving the loss of a lover in A Single Man (A-). In his directorial debut, fashion designer Tom Ford tailors a great character study similar in texture to Gods & Monsters. I finally see why Firth has such a following, and one of my
- ["Up in the Air" Captures Unease and Humor in Era of Layoff Culture](https://silverscreencapture.com/up-in-the-air/) - In Jason Reitman's Up in the Air (A+), George Clooney gets his perfect role: a bit of a Br'er Rabbit of the friendly skies. As a job axman on the frequent flier circuit, he falls to earth when paired with spunky Anna Kendrick and affaired with sultry Vera Farmiga. It's an acerbic, moving film that
- ["Up" is a Sentimetal and Original Animated Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/up/) - Pete Docter’s Up (A-) is a lovely animated film that peaks in its first ten minutes but then opens up to a variety of rich vistas of imagination. The story of an old man and a kid who drift off in a helium balloon bouquet propelled house to a magical world is a true original.
- ["Inglorious Basterds" (2009) Finds Revisionist History in Wartime](https://silverscreencapture.com/inglorious-basterds/) - Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (B+) is an audacious piece of revisionist history that imagines what WWII might have been like if a couple of clever factions of bounty hunters, cinephiles and revenge seekers could have tried to kill Hitler at a movie screening. Leave it to Tarantino to take such a high-concept idea to such
- ["The Hangover" is a Hoot as Friends Piece Together What Happened Last Night](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-hangover/) - Todd Phillips' The Hangover (B+) is vulgar, audacious and altogether winning. Pairing Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis in a hybrid comedy/mystery, the film follows a gang of groomsmen who must piece together what happened the previous night in a debaucherous Vegas bachelor party where the groom mysteriously disappeared. The episodic antics and misadventures
- ["X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) a low Point in Series](https://silverscreencapture.com/x-men-origins-wolverine-2009/) - Hugh Jackman's Wolverine character, such a highlight of the X-Men film series, was bound to get his own movie. Unfortunately it's Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine (D+), which plunges a distinctive character into a rather routine action thriller. Hood manages to suck the charm right out of the enterprise as weak effects, tired subplots and
- [Tom Hooper Crafts Historic Hit with "The King's Speech"](https://silverscreencapture.com/kings-speech/) - Tom Hooper’s The King Speech (A) is an unexpected buddy film about a stuttering king and the speech coach who helps him get his words out right. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are both quite remarkable in those two roles, respectively. Helena Bonham Carter is quite good too as the king’s spouse. The film takes
- [Eastwood’s “Hereafter” a Stirring Ensemble Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/hereafter/) - Matt Damon and ensemble provide an intelligent, nuanced look at the afterlife in Clint Eastwood's Hereafter (B+). Three stories "crash" together in a film that is moving while avoiding being sentimental. Deliberately paced but good payoff.
- [“Iron Man 2” Continues Marvel Momentum](https://silverscreencapture.com/iron-man-2/) - Director Jon Favreau expands his mileu and enhances his aesthetic with an Iron Man 2 (B+) that builds on the giddy spirit of the first and allows Robert Downey Jr. to continue to hold court over gab and gadgetry. It's a rip-roaring actioner with an even more personal story, higher stakes and an all-star supporting
- [“Rabbit Hole” a Tough Tearjerker](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-rabbit-hole/) - Rabbit Hole (A) is a tearjerker of the first order with a never-better Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart mining a groundswell of grief after the loss of their son. Director John Cameron Mitchell does an elegant and intimate job at getting to the heart of the story. Miles Teller is superb as the family’s son
- [Andrew Haigh's "Weekend" Showcases His Penchant for Intimate Gay Love Stories](https://silverscreencapture.com/weekend-2011/) - Andrew Haigh's Weekend (B+) is a highly perceptive and dialogue-rich British-set film about two men who spend a few days together discussing the nature of love, relationships, art and the Big Topics of our age before one leaves the country. More than just a gay riff on the Before Sunrise movies or My Dinner with
- [“Toy Story 3” a Playground of Emotion](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-toy-story-3/) - Lee Unkrich’s Toy Story 3 (B) delves even deeper into the emo treasure box of this CGI animation universe, with elegiac and nostalgic results. This is the installment of the family franchise that plumbs themes of putting away childish things, playing on the heartstrings without yielding as much fun with the playthings. Woody, Buzz and
- ["The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is a Welcome Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/best-exotic-marigold-hotel/) - There's not much "hip" aside from Maggie Smith's replacement surgery in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (B+), but this senior citizen passage to India contains considerable joys and sentiment. Director John Madden and his muse Dame Judi Dench draw viewers in to the emotional far pavilions of friends and family. More than Cocoon with curry,
- [“Shame” (2011) a Visceral Look at Sex Addiction](https://silverscreencapture.com/shame-2011/) - Steve McQueen’s Shame (A-) is a tough and gritty look at sex addition through a central character played by Michael Fassbender in a fierce and primal performance. His disturbing relationship with all women in the film, including with his sister played by Carey Mulligan, is absorbing and insightful. The “New York, New York” scene in
- [Unsentimental "Social Network" About Facebook Founder Displays Craft and Cunning](https://silverscreencapture.com/social-network/) - David Fincher’s The Social Network (B) tells the true-life story of the founding of Facebook. Its fairly unlikable hero Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) aside, the film is a glossy and smartly told story about the lengths folks will go to protect their vision and invention and how stone-cold they can be in discarding friends in
- ["The Artist" (2011) Brings Back Golden Era Silent Films in Stylish Form](https://silverscreencapture.com/artist/) - Just saw the year's best picture and can't imagine a scenario in which Oscars will disagree. Filmed as a silent movie in black and white with lush symphonic underscoring, The Artist (A+) is funny, romantic, nostalgic and occasionally profound. Jean Dujarden and Benenie Bejo display a chemistry beyond words in this ode to love and
- ["Take This Waltz" is a Magnificent Find About Romantic Choices](https://silverscreencapture.com/take-waltz/) - Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (A) presents a beguiling choice for its female protagonist (a mesmerizing Michelle Williams): does she stay with the husband she knows and loves (Seth Rogen) or pursue the charming guy she just met who seems to be sweeping her off her feet in multiple chance meetings (Luke Kirby)? The fact
- ["Water for Elephants" Moves at Pachyderm Pace](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-water-for-elephants/) - Although pretty as a postcard, Water for Elephants (C-) is as formulaic as a tale can be that blends animal cruelty and forbidden love. At pachyderm pace, this three-ring melodrama fails to ring true. Robert Pattinson gives an inert performance. Witherspoon and Waltz dial it in as the other stock characters in the most mediocre
- ["Thor" (2011) is Great Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/thor/) - Director Kenneth Branagh is a bit of an inspired choice to helm the sword and sorcery on a faraway planet comic book epic Thor (B), which pits Chris Hemsworth as the titular hero against bad boy brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) for keys to the kingdom ruled by Anthony Hopkins' King Odin. As Thor's earthbound love
- ["X-Men: First Class" (2011) Prequel Gets it Right](https://silverscreencapture.com/x-men-first-class/) - Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class (A-) is a magnificent thriller mashed up with a prequel that manages to showcase how superheroes helped avert the Cuban Missile Crisis. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender play young versions of Professor Xavier and Magneto (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in the original X-Men trilogy) as they establsih the early
- ["Amour" (2012) is a Poignant Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/amour/) - Michael Haneke’s sometimes pretentious, deliberately paced directing can’t eclipse the poignant acting in the very depressing film Amour (B). Jean-Louis Trintignant is the underdog actor here, superb as a devoted elderly husband nursing his slowly degenerating spouse, played gracefully by Emmanuelle Riva. Haneke lingers on the couple’s routines with near-scientific observation, but it’s the moments
- ["Argo" an Unexpected Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/argo/) - Gone Baby Gone and The Town proved Ben Affleck is an excellent director. Argo (A+) proves he's a masterful one with a politically-minded action potboiler set during the Iran Hostage Crisis. It's authentic in all the details of its declassified true story, riveting and even sometimes funny as an intelligence officer mounts a very improbable
- ["Rock of Ages" a Misfire Despite Great Music Catalogue](https://silverscreencapture.com/rock-ages/) - Marred by Adam Shankman's uninspired direction (Hairspray fit more like a comfy housecoat) and mainly lifeless performances, Rock of Ages (C-) is a tedious karaoke with the stars. It's a musical with poorly performed '80s songs and choreography, and only about five jokes actually land. Tom Cruise is pretty good as Lestat, except that's not
- [De Palma Phones it in for "Passion" (2012)](https://silverscreencapture.com/passion-2012/) - Somewhere on the guilty pleasure scale between Black Swan and Boxing Helena is writer/director Brian De Palma's Passion (D+), a twisty tale of a ruthless ad exec (Rachel McAdams) and her talented protégée (Noomi Rapace). And if it were made by anyone other than the veteran master who made Carrie, Sisters, Body Double and The
- ["The Dark Knight Rises" Concludes Nolan's Batman Trilogy](https://silverscreencapture.com/dark-knight-rises/) - Nobody seems to want to admit that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (C+) just gets a little silly. Tom Hardy’s Bane is an incomprehensible mess of a character; Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne spends much of the film trapped in a pit; and it’s difficult to say what Anne Hathaway’s Selina Kyle is supposed to
- ["The Master" Tackles Cult Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/master/) - Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master (C) is a not-so-veiled look at a religion not-so-different-from-Scientology with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the chief guru of a peculiar religion, Amy Adams as his wife and Joaquin Phoenix as his apprentice. Once the film gets each of the characters settled into place, however, it doesn’t seem to know what
- ["Broadway Idiot" (2013) Document's Green Day's Journey to Broadway Stage](https://silverscreencapture.com/broadway-idiot-2/) - Doug Hamilton’s Broadway Idiot (B) is an effective documentary about how the dueling aesthetics of punk rock and musical theatre find their place together on the Great White Way. In this case, the doc tracks how theatrical wunderkinds including Michael Mayer and Tom Kitt translate the watershed Green Day concept album American Idiot to the
- ["Thor: The Dark World" (2013) is the Opposite of a Marvel](https://silverscreencapture.com/thor-dark-world/) - The discipline of director Kenneth Branagh is missed this time around as all the king's horses and all the king's men can't put this kingdom back together for the sequel again. Director Alan Taylor's Thor: The Dark World (D+) reunites Chris Hemsworth as Thor Tom Hiddleston as Loki for more interplanetary highjinks, although this time
- [Baz Luhrmann's "Great Gatsby" (2013) Largely Succeeds](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-great-gatsby-2013/) - After about 45 minutes of Baz Luhrmann's excessive whirling dervishness settles down and a captivating Leonardo DiCaprio finally arrives as the titular playboy man of mystery, The Great Gatsby (B-) becomes a pretty engrossing potboiler about forbidden love and tragic obsession. Nearly cloaked in all the razzmatazz, glamorous sets and anachronistic hip hop music is
- [Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station" (2013) a Poignant Drama and Showcase for Michael B. Jordan](https://silverscreencapture.com/fruitvale-station/) - Shockingly efficient in its character building and its 90 minutes of sustained dread, Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station (A) tells a true story plucked from today's headlines about the plight of young black men in America. Michael B. Jordan is a revelation as Oscar, a 22 year old father trying to reform after jail time, whose
- ["The To Do List" (2013) Doesn't Deliver](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-to-do-list/) - Writer/director Maggie Carey's '90s-set The To Do List (C-) is radical only in its gender-bending-premise of a young female character being the one looking to lose her virginity come hell or high water. Alas a wooden central performance by Aubrey Plaza and a sloppy structure that just doesn't deliver on enough laughs thwarts this limp
- ["The Wolverine" (2013) a Solid Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/51/) - Director James Mangold channels his inner adamantium to create a steely summer adventure with The Wolverine (B+). This Tokyo-set saga features Hugh Jackman in top form and grounded story and stunts that deliver the goods. This actioner features some nice action alchemy for fans eager to see this character soldier on.
- ["Lee Daniels' The Butler" is Stirring](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-butler/) - Lee Daniels' The Butler (A) is a heart-wrenching Hollywood epic about American race relations through the lens of pacifist father (a solid Forest Whitaker) and action-oriented son (a revelatory David Oweloyo). Even Oprah Winfrey gets every note right as the mighty mom of a great American family. What may be dismissed as overly polished is
- ["We're The Millers" Only Occasionally Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/millers/) - We're the Millers (C+), a comedy directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, hearkens back to the spirit of National Lampoon's Vacation, although this time around it's a fake family on a road trip to smuggle drugs across the Mexican border and get them back to Denver, Smokey and the Bandit style (except in an RV) for
- ["Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" Doesn't Connect](https://silverscreencapture.com/jackass-presents-bad-grandpa/) - Jeff Tremaine's hidden camera road trip comedy Bad Grandpa (C-) offers Johnny Knoxville in full makeup as a cantankerous codger and child actor Jackson Nicoll as his sidekick and prank co-conspirator in a threadbare plot about delivering the boy from jailbird mom to even worse dad for custody. Knoxville is game for the high-jinks but
- [David O. Russell's "American Hustle" Largely Successful](https://silverscreencapture.com/american-hustle/) - David O. Russell's comedic crime caper American Hustle (B) is sometimes an undisciplined mess, and this hurly-burly quality gives the enterprise both its frustrations and its charms. The con-women, played outrageously by Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence, steal the show. Other Russell repertory actors including Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and others don't quite nail indelible
- ["Philomena" a Bittersweet Bonbon](https://silverscreencapture.com/philomena/) - Stephen Frears's Philomena (A-) is a bittersweet bonbon about a cynical journalist (Steve Coogan) and a staunch Irish Catholic woman (Dame Judi Dench) on a journey to find the son she unwittingly put up for adoption a half century ago. The characters are lovingly drawn, and the enterprise rises above melodrama thanks to a sharp script and
- ["Her" (2013) is a Strange Romcom](https://silverscreencapture.com/her/) - A most genius first hour squandered a bit for its remaining two acts, writer/director Spike Jonze's Her (B) is an ambitious dramedy analyzing the bits and bytes of relationships. Joaquin Phoenix is superb as the lonely protagonist who falls in love with a coquettish computer operating system voiced by Scarlett Johannson. Although some similar themes
- [Stage Hit "August: Osage County" Doesn't Fully Translate to Screen](https://silverscreencapture.com/august-osage-county/) - There are worse ways you could spend two hours at the movies but few as talent-filled as John Wells's tart melodrama August: Osage County (C-). Drably filmed, oddly paced and crammed with an assorted cast of self-conscious A-listers, it's an inert film indeed. Meryl Streep makes a marvelously horrible matriarch - a breathy, pill-popping spitfire
- ["Nebraska" is a Nifty Slice of Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/nebraska/) - The next stop on Director Alexander Payne's twisted travelogue is Nebraska (A-), and it's a corker of a film, a comic father-son road trip wrapped within a requiem for the American Dream. Veteran actor Bruce Dern sheds all vanity as a befuddled cotton swab tipped codger who believes he has won a sweepstakes. Will Forte
- ["On the Road" (2013) a Coming of Age Travelogue](https://silverscreencapture.com/on-the-road-2013/) - Buoyant performances by Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley and impeccable period details in production design lift Walter Salles' otherwise mixed bag of a coming of age travelogue On the Road (B-). Based on Jack Karouac's classic novel about nonconformity, the film traces episodic encounters between friends and lovers, capturing the delirium that bonds young people
- ["Ender's Game" is Minor Outer Space Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/enders-game/) - For most of its duration, Gavin Hood's outer space saga Ender's Game (C-) is like supervising a bunch of kids at a Laser Tag park; it's a whole lot more fun for the little ones. In a future when children such as the protagonist played by stoic Asa Butterfield are subjected to war game simulations
- ["About Time" (2013) is Quirky Time Travel Romcom](https://silverscreencapture.com/time-2013/) - Writer/director Richard Curtis, famous for Love Actually, is a master of capturing great emotional details but getting lost in the big picture, so it's no surprise that his romantic time travel dramedy About Time (B-) is a lovable mess. Despite massive tonal shifts and meandering to subplots that distract from the central plot, it is
- [Johnny Depp Stars in Tepid Sci-Fi Thriller "Transcendence"](https://silverscreencapture.com/transcendence/) - After the novelty wears off of actually seeing Johnny Depp not pancaked in makeup and sporting an outrageous accent, it is disappointing to see that he's one of the weakest links in a series of bad choices in a sci-fi thriller being unceremoniously dumped in a spring release time slot. First-time director Wally Pfister proves
- ["Dom Hemingway" an Unusual New Role for Jude Law](https://silverscreencapture.com/dom-hemingway/) - It's always a thrill to watch a starmaking performance, to witness an actor inhabit a role with singular ferocity. All the more astonishing is when this revelation happens to be an actor who has been in the spotlight for two decades and hasn't really given a flicker of this genius before. And so it is
- ["Jodorowsky's Dune" a Thrilling Documentary of the Movie That Never Was](https://silverscreencapture.com/jodorowskys-dune/) - For any creative person who has felt for a moment that they have impulses their contemporaries just don't understand, there's a spectacular new movie for you. Frank Pavich's documentary Jodorowsky's Dune (A) chronicles the extraordinary tale of a cult filmmaker (Alejandro Jodorowsky) who decides to follow up his underground sensations El Topo and Holy Mountain
- ["Chef" a Wonderful Comfort Food Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/chef/) - Writer/director Jon Favreau's Chef (A-) is an ordinary story told extraordinarily about a man's journey to the brink and back, set against a topical landscape blending the zest of cooking for a living, the zeitgeist of social media as a buzz builder for a restauranteur's commerce, the influence of one's family and friends on one's
- ["X-Men Days of Future Past" (2014) a Tedious Installment](https://silverscreencapture.com/x-men-days-future-past-2/) - Returning to the director's chair he occupied for the franchise's first two installments, Bryan Singer brings little new inspiration to X-Men Days of Future Past (C-), a tedious time travel installment in which the veteran ensemble of mutant superheroes sends Hugh Jackman's Wolverine back to the '70's to help his First Class colleagues of younger
- ["A Million Ways to Die in the West" a Failed Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/million-ways-die-west/) - A spectacular fail on the great wide expanse of the American Wild West, writer/director Seth MacFarlane follows up his deliriously ribald Ted with the supremely unfunny frontier comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West (F). Casting himself in the lead role is honestly the first way MacFarlane demonstrates painful western death, with a
- ["Maleficent" Features Jolie in "Sleeping Beauty" Villain's Origin Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/maleficent/) - An absentee wealthy father, three spinster sisters hawking wish fulfillment and blather, a conflicted surrogate aunt with mixed feelings about a visiting teenager and a 16-year-old with a strong attraction to a needle somehow manage to create a fairly inert melodrama in Robert Stromberg's Maleficent (C), a revisionist Sleeping Beauty told through the perspective of
- [Film Adaptation of Stage Show "Venus in Fur" Doesn't Fully Convince](https://silverscreencapture.com/venus-fur/) - It is uncertain if the story takes place in a theatre, in a crypt or in a metaphor as an arrogant writer/director gets his comeuppance from an unexpected auditioning actress in director Roman Polanski's French language movie Venus in Fur (B+). A superb Mathieu Amalric is pretty clearly channeling the controversial auteur himself; and Polanski's
- ["Boyhood" a Magnificent Movie Miracle](https://silverscreencapture.com/boyhood/) - Writer/director Richard Linklater has created the movie miracle of the year with Boyhood (A+), a powerfully stirring journey that rivals its extremely original high concept. This first-ever fiction experiment with newcomer actor Ellar Coltrane actually aging more than a decade in the role from childhood to high school graduation is matched by the emotional wallop
- ["Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) a Delightful Cosmic Surprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/guardians-galaxy/) - Beaming onto a screen near you is a vaudeville starship troupe milking about five jokes for all they're worth in James Gunn's aimless but often joyful space opera comic book adaptation, Guardians of the Galaxy (B). A smuggler out of the Han Solo playbook, Chris Pratt continues his awesome year with crowd-pleasing snark on a
- ["Birdman" is Style Over Substance](https://silverscreencapture.com/birdman/) - First things first, Alejandro González Iñárritu's tragicomic backstage character drama Birdman (B) is often brilliantly bonkers, and Michael Keaton gives a command performance at the film's core as a fading Hollywood film star trying to reinvent himself on Broadway while suffering an all-out mental breakdown. With long tracking shots through claustrophobic corridors, a percussive jazz
- [Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" a Showcase for Amazing Performances](https://silverscreencapture.com/whiplash/) - I suppose Mr. Holland would never forge his opus or dead poets their society without a little creative inspiration. Writer/director Damien Chazelle's Whiplash (B+) supposes that great art comes from a relentless push from both oneself and some other outside force. The film starts with an aggressive, percussive beat in a lonely hall and ends
- ["Jupiter Ascending" a Bore to the Planet Core](https://silverscreencapture.com/jupiter-ascending/) - The Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending (D+) commits the biggest sin in the movie universe: it was a bore to the planet core. Cribbing elements from Dune, Flash Gordon and others in the space opera milieu, this talky tale of an Earthling (Mila Kunis) who gets engulfed in a galactic struggle with a campy villain (Eddie Redmayne)
- [Good Riddance to this Trilogy with "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies"](https://silverscreencapture.com/hobbit-battle-five-armies/) - Damned as the third and most inert installment of an already stretched out film adaptation of a novel barely as thick as a pamphlet, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (C-) is the uninvolving conclusion of a most perfunctory trilogy. Coming alive only in an epic dragon village battle and an inventive
- ["The Interview" is a Bold Comic Swing](https://silverscreencapture.com/interview-2014/) - Directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have certainly stirred up a lot of controversy with The Interview (C), but it's basically just another bro-comedy in the tradition of 21 Jump Street, although not as good. Seth Rogen and James Franco mug and try to outwit each other with vulgarities during an extended adventure to assassinate
- ["Fifty Shades of Grey" Adapts Popular Novel](https://silverscreencapture.com/fifty-shades-gray/) - For about half of its duration, Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades of Grey (C) maintains a fairly respectable sense of intrigue about whether its bookish co-ed (Dakota Johnson) and her unlikely business magnate boyfriend (Jamie Dornan) will indeed be an ideal match, despite his S&M tendencies. Alas the film gets tied up in fifty shades of
- ["I Am Michael" an Intriguing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/i-am-michael/) - Justin Kelly's I Am Michael (B+) is a gripping true story about a gay magazine editor who has a series of revelations that lead him to attempt to alter his sexual orientation. Fully realized by James Franco, the title character is complex and sympathetic as he wrestles with issues of faith and identity. The quirky
- ["Do I Sound Gay?" an Intriguing Documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/do-i-sound-gay/) - David Thorpe's documentary Do I Sound Gay? (C-) plumbs the mystery behind why many gay men over-articulate certain letters and use clearer vowels for a longer duration than their straight counterparts. Thorpe proves a rather non-engaging central character and makes very few interesting choices in chronicling his own journey to transform his way of talking.
- [Superhero Ensemble Continues in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015)](https://silverscreencapture.com/avengers-age-of-ultron/) - Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron (C) assembles all of the superheroes from the original hit but little of the wit for a flimsy follow-up. Lumbering, uninspired and overlong, the film now carries the burden of having to extend the franchise that's now in spinoffs, on TV and cross-platform. It all seems like a perfunctory
- ["Mad Max: Fury Road" is Intense Action Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/mad-max-fury-road/) - The first act of director George Miller's latest post-apocalyptic epic left me a bit mixed on Max, but as the propulsive parade of vehicular adventure progresses, it became clear that we do indeed need another hero. The adrenaline filled reboot Mad Max: Fury Road (B) is precision tuned in its breakneck stunt work, gloriously specific
- [Paul Rudd Lends Charm to "Ant-Man" (2015)](https://silverscreencapture.com/ant-man/) - Like a pest at a picnic, Peyton Reed's Ant-Man (C-) is all over the place and quite irritating. Paul Rudd provides his cat burglar turned miniaturized superhero with about as little charisma as possible and certainly none of his trademark comedy. He and love interest Evangeline Lilly, villain Corey Stoll and physicist impresario Michael Douglas
- ["Paper Towns" is a Strong Young Adult Drama Mystery](https://silverscreencapture.com/paper-towns/) - One of the "perks of being a movie critic" is having a favorite genre, and I'm an absolute sucker for coming-of-age dramas. Jake Schreier's Paper Towns (B) is a leisurely paced but fairly sensational adaptation of a young adult novel about losing yourself, finding yourself and savoring the moments in between. When a sensitive but
- ["Tangerine" Introduces Viewers to Refreshingly New Screen Characters](https://silverscreencapture.com/tangerine/) - Famously shot on three iPhone 5s smartphones and the toast of Sundance, Sean Baker's new indie comedy/drama Tangerine (B) is an exotic fruit indeed. The movie showcases two transgender actresses, Kiki Kitana Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, who magnificently play sassy prostitutes (as one character says "a trainwreck and a hot mess") involved in antics to
- [New "Vacation" (2015) Can't Replicate the Classic](https://silverscreencapture.com/vacation-2015/) - Jon Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein's Vacation (C) reboots the classic comedy franchise with an affable Ed Helms as "Rusty Griswold" taking his family on a cross-country car trip to the fictional West Coast Wally World theme park. Amidst the barrage of gross-out humor, there is a legitimate glimpse at a modern American family
- ["The Martian" is a Magnificent Look at Global Cooperation to Save a Stranded Earthling](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-martian-2015/) - Given the amount of frustration most Americans have trying to function when they've lost a smartphone, it's fascinating watching Matt Damon play an astronaut stranded on Mars having to go Full MacGyver, tapping into his brilliant scientific and survival skills to improvise in a world of limited food, oxygen, shelter, technology, human contact and rescue
- ["Our Brand Is Crisis" But Our Film is Only OK](https://silverscreencapture.com/our-brand-is-crisis/) - David Gordon Green's Our Brand Is Crisis (C-) is the story of a real-life political strategist (Sandra Bullock) who gets her groove back through her work as a consultant on a contentious Bolivian election. The screenplay has a few pearls of wisdom and the story a few moments of insight, but the film's whole sense
- ["Spotlight" is an Engrossing Ensemble Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/spotlight-2015/) - The quartet of Boston Globe investigative journalists portrayed in Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (A) are often speed-dining on vending machine snack crackers and black coffee, don't always match their socks and constantly struggle with defective ballpoint pens. But in the year 2001 as major world news was erupting and traditional newspapers were fighting for their life
- ["Brooklyn" (2015) a Fantastic Period Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/brooklyn/) - Given the film's depiction of the joys and promises of immigrating from Ireland to New York boroughs just six decades ago, John Crowley's Brooklyn (B) should be required viewing for a few presidential aspirants. Saoirse Ronan carries the drama on her capable shoulders and shows her character mature right before our eyes; the actress is
- ["Trumbo" Takes a While to Gain Momentum](https://silverscreencapture.com/trumbo/) - The repeated refrain, "There's a good story in there somewhere" is extraordinarily prescient in Jay Roach's Trumbo (C), a rather tedious true story that finally gets compelling in its final act. Bryan Cranston plays the titular protagonist, an eccentric blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter and family man who improbably manipulated a Tinseltown underground to coax the powers
- [Tarantino's "Hateful Eight" a Twisted Slow Burn](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-hateful-eight/) - Quentin Tarantino's hybrid western mystery gangster epic The Hateful Eight (B+) has all the trappings of the writer/director's best work from outstanding ensemble acting to wicked dialogue to twisty plot conventions to pulpy action and inventive use of music. To some extent, it's at times a bit too much of a retread of his most
- [DiCaprio Shines in Adventurous "The Revenant"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-revenant/) - Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant (B) blends western epic, revenge thriller and Christ allegory to often stunning effect on a blood-drenched American frontier. Leonardo DiCaprio gives new definition to suffering for one's art as he undergoes a cavalcade of emotional and physical scars in an extremely gory story. In the grunts and groans of passages
- ["45 Years" a Poignant Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-45-years/) - Andrew Haigh's bittersweet British drama/romance 45 Years (B) continues the talented director's intimate character studies into complex people, examining their public and private lives with sophisticated perception. Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay give outstanding late-career performances as a couple grappling with a relationship-altering revelation the week before they partake in a milestone party celebrating their
- ["Big Short" Deliciously Skewers Wall Street Culture](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-big-short/) - Best known for directing Will Ferrell larks, director Adam McKay sets his eyes on a work of gravitas by tackling the American housing market collapse through the eyes of a few investing misfits who saw it all coming in the wry dramedy The Big Short (B). Treading familiar territory of big data chic honed to
- ["Sisters" (2015) a Missed Opportunity](https://silverscreencapture.com/sisters-2015/) - There's one great line in Jason Moore's Amy Poehler-Tina Fey comedy Sisters (C) when a character remarks that she could use a little less Forever 21 and a bit more Suddenly 42. There's likely a film buried deep within this one that addresses the angst of aging when you really don't want to grow up,
- ["Youth" an Exuberant Dramedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/youth-2015/) - A Felliniesque fantasia on life, love and art, Paolo Sorrentino's Youth (A-) is an answer to cinephile prayer. There will be many who dismiss this Swiss Alps resort set comedy-drama as pretentious drivel or avoid the film altogether for fear of glacial pace; but those seeking an appropriately contemplative requiem on the choices made in
- ["Joy" is Anything But](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-joy/) - I saw David O. Russell's Joy (D+) so you don't have to. Loosely based on the life of a divorced mom who transforms herself into the entrepreneur of the Miracle Mop empire in the early days of television home shopping, this maudlin seriocomedy takes roughly 90 minutes before it gains a pulse. By the time
- ["Hail, Caesar!" Misses its Marks](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hail-caesar/) - While it contains several inspired performances, droll dialogue and impeccable period detail, Joel and Ethan Coen's send-up of Hollywood Hail, Caesar! (C+) doesn't come together with quite the finesse of the brothers' typical efforts. It depicts one day in the life of Hollywood in the golden years, but the result is far from vintage. James
- [Michael Moore's "Where To Invade Next" a Profound Commentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-where-to-invade-next/) - Where To Invade Next (A-) is a strange misnomer for writer/director Michael Moore's most eye-opening and consistently accessible documentary to date, which is only tangentially about the military. In the film, the on-screen auteur stages a series of mock infiltrations into some of the great global societies to steal and stake claim to brilliant ideas
- [Presenting the 2016 Oscar Winners](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-the-2016-oscar-winners/) - Thanks again to Dolby Laboratories for sponsoring my time in Hollywood to cover the Oscars. Here is the full list of winners of the 2016 Academy Awards, with hyperlinks to my reviews on this blog: Best Picture The Big Short Bridge of Spies Brooklyn Mad Max: Fury Road The Martian The Revenant Room Spotlight My
- [40th Anniversary Atlanta Film Festival 2016](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-40th-anniversary-atlanta-film-festival/) - The 40th Annual Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) has announced the full lineup of film, educational and special programming and events that will take place from April 1 – 10, 2016. Of the nearly 5,000 film submissions for the 2016 festival, the final lineup includes 51 feature length films and 100 short films representing 37 countries.
- ["Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" Tackles Memoirs of War with Unusual POV](https://silverscreencapture.com/whiskey-tango-foxtrot-book-movie-review/) - The general "WTF" sensibility exuded by a new film on the scene is actually the marker of something singular and subversive. Co-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa help inject their wry war comedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (B) with moments of delirious adrenaline, but it's leading lady Tina Fey who shoulders the load of a magnificent against-type role
- ["London Has Fallen" But Film Fails to Thrill](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-london-has-fallen/) - Please stop this franchise. A foreign soil-set follow-up to White House attack thriller Olympus Has Fallen, Babak Najafi's London Has Fallen (D+) is largely a load of bollocks. Najafi stages an elaborate British state funeral sabotaged by terrorist assassins followed by a breakneck series of escapes in which a Secret Service agent (Gerard Butler) endeavors to
- ["Hello, My Name is Doris" Very Amusing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hello-my-name-is-doris/) - There's a fine line between a hot flash and a hot mess, and Sally Field plays nearly every facet of an amazing woman coming into her own late in life as the title character of Michael Showalter's Hello, My Name is Doris (B+). Although some sequences and snippets of the screenplay veer into overly broad
- ["Money Monster" Doesn't Connect](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-money-monster/) - Painfully predictable and uninspired, Jodie Foster's Money Monster (D) begins with George Clooney on a toilet and essentially spirals downward from there. When Jack O'Connell's gunman character holds the silver fox TV personality hostage on-air, it's up to mild-mannered protagonist Julia Roberts in the production booth to help save the day. Tedium ensues. The theme
- ["The Nice Guys" Often an Amusing Diversion](https://silverscreencapture.com/nice-guys/) - Balancing the enjoyable and the implausible, Shane Black's The Nice Guys (B) is essentially a cartoon-like series of pratfalls and stunts, buoyed by Ryan Gosling's funny, lived-in performance as a bumbling 1970's L.A. private eye. The scruffy script and amusing set-ups in a sleazy stew of pleasant period detail are often quite entertaining, and many
- ["Weiner" Gets a Political Documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-weiner/) - The most fascinating thing about Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg's political documentary Weiner (B-) is that it exists at all. It's not the filmmakers' fault that their subject, New York Representative Anthony Weiner who resigned in the disgrace of a sexting scandal and embarked on an unsuccessful bid for redemption in the 2013 NYC mayoral
- ["Suicide Squad" (2016) is a Crazy Ride](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-suicide-squad/) - David Ayer's Suicide Squad (C) does a good job introducing and humanizing an ensemble of D.C. Universe villains. Each gets his or her own visual fact file, akin to a baseball card or Pokemon pop-up stats, which is a helpful entree into some potential future adventures. Alas the story in this origin film, a mission
- ["Florence Foster Jenkins" Often Amusing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-florence-foster-jenkins/) - It's an inspired idea indeed to have celebrated actress Meryl Streep perform in a most meta Emperor's New Clothes style homage as an infamous no-talent. But as the titular character, a songstress oblivious of her pronounced vocal limitations, in Stephen Frears's 1944-set biopic Florence Foster Jenkins (B), Streep's seriocomic riffs are often on the mark
- ["Hands of Stone" a Solid Boxing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-movie-review-hands-of-stone/) - Although many viewers may be feeling "no más" to the prospect of another boxing movie, Jonathan Jakubowicz's Hands of Stone (A-) turns out to be stunningly good and one of the most unexpected character dramas of the year. The film is a sports biopic about the career of Panamanian former professional boxer Roberto Durán, and
- [Viggo Mortensen is Amazing in "Captain Fantastic"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-captain-fantastic/) - Somewhere on the cinematic patriarchs continuum between Captain von Trapp and the Great Santini, Viggo Mortensen gives a sensitive, soulful and indelible portrayal of a flawed but well-meaning dad in Matt Ross' incredibly engaging Captain Fantastic (A-). Mortensen is the draw here, summoning a rugged loner charisma that at this point can just be called
- ["Denial" an Unmemorable Courtroom Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-denial-2016/) - Mick Jackson's Denial (C) doesn't do cinematic justice to a true-life tale of an American professor who has to defend herself in British courts for defaming a Holocaust denier. Rachel Weisz isn't quite compelling enough, a serpentine Timothy Spall isn't given adequate on-screen time and the court proceedings seem rather perfunctory. A trip to Auschwitz
- ["Moonlight" Tells Magnificent Story of a Man's Life in Three Acts](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-moonlight/) - Written and directed with poignancy and grace, Barry Jenkins' Moonlight (A) is urgent in telling a three-chapter coming of age story of a young African-American man named Chiron and how his experiences growing up in America (largely in a surreal pastel drenched Miami) shape his identity. Rather than tackle only the physical violence associated with
- ["Office Christmas Party" Not One for the Ages](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-office-christmas-party/) - Comedians gathered in their cubicle lair, but hijinks and laughter were so rarely there in Will Speck and Josh Gordon's amateurish lark Office Christmas Party (C-). Granted it's hard to maintain an anarchic spirit for a full feature film even with talented actors (last year's listless Sisters was similarly tedious), but this Party rarely gets
- [Denzel Washington Brings August Wilson "Fences" to Movie Screens](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-fences/) - Fences (B), the movie directed by and starring Denzel Washington based on the play by August Wilson, is a work of profound acting and themes. It's a treasure to have the celebrated piece of theatre documented as a film, but Washington as director missed some opportunities to steer it into fully satisfying or cinematically creative
- ["Lion" is a Dramatic Family Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-lion-2016/) - OK, I feel like I'm critiquing a Hallmark card with pop-up sentiment, decorative flourishes and a never-ending travelogue of treacle. Equally affecting and head-scratching, Garth Davis' Lion (C) traces the journey of an orphaned boy in India adopted by parents in Tasmania and his quest as a twentysomething to find the brother and mother so
- [Movie Review Plus Book Review Q&A with Ashley Williams for "Hidden Figures"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-plus-book-review-qa-hidden-figures/) - Welcome to Silver Screen Capture's latest crossover with Ashley Williams of The Book Fetish Blog. She read the novel Hidden Figures, and we both saw the movie. I'm reviewing the film, she's reviewing the book and we both answered a few questions. Check out her site for the book critique and read our joint Q&A right
- ["20th Century Women" a Delight](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-20th-century-women/) - Oh, coming-of-age ensemble dramedies: let me count the ways I love them! Mike Mills' semi-autobiographical 20th Century Women (A) is a blissful slice of life as characters on the cusp of change in freewheeling 1979 Santa Barbara craft an unconventional family. Central to the film is the relationship between never-been-better Annette Bening as an eccentric
- [“Legends of the Fall” a Lush Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/legends-fall/) - Anchored by Brad Pitt and gorgeous scenery, Edward Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" is a romantic ode to family and friendship in the early 20th century.
- [“Noah” a Folly of Biblical Proportions](https://silverscreencapture.com/noah/) - Among the things I wasn't expecting to see in an adaptation of the story of Noah and the Ark: huge talking rock-people who help build the maritime vessel, magic crystals that foretell the future and, oh yeah, a shipboard pregnancy test. I'm generally willing to follow visionary director Darren Aronofsky as he tilts at windmills
- [“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” an Unnecessary Continuation](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-ghostbusters-afterlife-2021/) - Those seeking truth in advertising will find very few ghosts here of note, but this sequel is quite definitely a bust. Director Jason Reitman continues the film series of two groundbreaking ‘80s special effects centric comedies helmed by his dad Ivan in the tonally muddled Ghostbusters: Afterlife (C), and this next generation entry is a
- [Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” a Phenomenal Fever Dream](https://silverscreencapture.com/chi-raq/) - There's lots of big ideas to convey about the headlines plaguing us today in Spike Lee's fever dream fable Chi-Raq (B). Although overstuffed with plot and prose, it's a powerful entreaty to end the violence dominating inner-city America and in Chicago in particular. Lee's unconventional narrative is a modern-day adaptation of Lysistrata, complete with rival
- [“Concussion” a Hard-Hitter](https://silverscreencapture.com/concussion/) - Like The Insider and Erin Brockovich, Peter Landesman's Concussion (B+) depicts an individual's courage in standing up against a real-life institutional cover-up. In this case, it's an immigrant pathologist versus the National Football League in terms of who knew what and when on the issue of head trauma to players causing specific and unusual side
- [“An Inconvenient Truth” Awakens Eco-Consciousness](https://silverscreencapture.com/inconvenient-truth/) - Al Gore's environmental call to action in An Inconvenient Truth (A) shouldn't make good cinema, but as directed by Dennis Guggenheim, it's an efficient and effective entreaty for citizens to help combat global warming. As persuasive filmmaking, it makes a stirring case.
- [“Rent” Movie Musical Gets a Lot Right](https://silverscreencapture.com/rent/) - Chris Columbus' Rent (B+) faithfully adapts the Broadway musical about a circle of bohemian NYC friends coming to terms with mortality and having to pay their dues for living life to their own beat. What he gets wrong in awkward transitions, cheesy sets and cast members (many from the original stage production) who look too
- [“Brokeback Mountain” a Watershed Gay Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/brokeback-mountain/) - Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (A) pairs brilliant actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as men who fall in love in the Wyoming wilderness of the 1960’s and spend the rest of their life trying to reconcile their forbidden desires to their wives (played by Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway) and hide their emotions from themselves.
- [“Nightcrawler” is Engrossing](https://silverscreencapture.com/nightcrawler/) - Equal parts drama, thriller and dark comedy, Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler (A) is a spectacular indictment of bloodthirsty mass media. A loner played by Jake Gyllenhaal exploits the "if it bleeds, it leads" culture of TV news to become a stringer for a struggling L.A. news channel and manipulates everything in his path from his equally
- [“Chasing Amy” - It’s Complicated](https://silverscreencapture.com/chasing-amy/) - For writer/director Kevin Smith, making movies seems a lot simpler than therapy. A pioneer of no/low budget films with his Clerks debut, he is creating a cottage industry out of working on his own hang-ups, insecurities and doubts on the big screen. It’s as if he says, “let’s have a dialogue” to his inner selves,
- [“Private Parts” Frank and Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/private-parts/) - Betty Thomas’ film about and starring controversial radio personality Howard Stern, Private Parts (B-) turns out to be more genial than genital. Instead of showcasing the sex-obsessed shock jock, the film portrays Stern as a doting husband. It’s sometimes sweet but not necessarily what fans may have expected. Still there’s plenty of funny stuff and
- [“Love Jones” a Smooth Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/love-jones/) - Theodore Witcher’s Love Jones (B-) tells a love story set in Chicago’s sexy art district as Larenz Tate and Nia Long discover the pacing, rhythm and rhyme of romance to the beat of a modern beat poetry community. This slice of life pulses with power and opportunity; and even when it doesn’t land just right,
- [“Donnie Brasco” Goes Deep](https://silverscreencapture.com/donnie-brasco/) - Despite the big guns, street talk and Mafia themes, Mike Newell’s crime drama Donnie Brasco (B) is essentially a love story at heart. Al Pacino plays a mobster and Johnny Depp an FBI agent who infiltrates the 1970’s Mafia, but the betrayal to the friendship that ensues has echoes of infidelity. It’s great to watch
- [Singleton’s “Rosewood” Rich History](https://silverscreencapture.com/rosewood/) - Director John Singleton comes of age with the historical Rosewood (B+) which addresses the way hate breeds throughout generations. Ving Rhames and Jon Voight give affecting performances.
- [“Waiting for Guffman” a Hometown Hoot](https://silverscreencapture.com/waiting-guffman/) - Christopher Guest directs and stars in Waiting for Guffman (B+), an uproarious mockumentary about the denizens of a small town (Blaine, Missouri: the “stool capital of the world”) putting on a production to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Eugene Levy, Parker Posey and Catherine O’Hara are among the hilarious ensemble with each playing a singularly incompetent
- [“Mascots” a Far Cry from Guest’s Best](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mascots/) - Usually the mere thought of a new entry into the mockumentary series pioneered by writer/director Christopher Guest brings a sly smile to the face. Alas the funny auteur's Mascots (D+), a direct-to-Netflix take on furries who get fans in a frenzy, doesn't get animated nearly enough. Perhaps after exploring theatre, dog shows, movie awards and
- [“Birth of a Nation” (2016) Chronicles Uprising](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-birth-of-a-nation-2016/) - Reclaiming the title of D.W. Griffith's controversial classic is the most subversive element of Nate Parker's otherwise straightforward historical 2016 retelling of Nat Turner's 1831 Virginia slave uprising, The Birth of a Nation (B-), but the timing of this true-life tale could not be more prescient given continuing struggles with race in today's society. Because
- [“King Cobra” a Minor Mystery](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-king-cobra/) - Justin Kelly's King Cobra (D+) is a mystery thriller with little mystery or thrills. Set in 2006 as YouTube was coming of age, the film purports to bring a Boogie Nights type allure to the goings-on behind the firewall of an adult film industry in transition. Newcomer Garrett Clayton plays a fresh faced Californian who
- [“Boogie Nights” Shows the Human Hues of Blue Movie Industry](https://silverscreencapture.com/boogie-nights/) - It's an industry in which every inch of every moment matters. Working in a raw medium, the artists must maintain stamina to create their most convincing moods. And when an actor says, "I'm ready to shoot my scene right now!" it is best for the camera crew to oblige. The denizens of the adult film
- [“Ice Storm” Shows America at Crossroads](https://silverscreencapture.com/ice-storm/) - Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm (A-) is set in 1973, but its suburban characters’ escape through adultery, alcohol and sexual experimentation could just as easily be present day. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood are among the outstanding ensemble. Lee is wryly observant and brings an outstanding vision to what
- [“I Know What You Did Last Summer” and I’m Not That Impressed](https://silverscreencapture.com/know-last-summer/) - SaveJim Gillespie's I Know What You Did Last Summer (C) is an average entry into the horror renaissance ushered in by Scream. Producers realized they could churn out movies on the cheap with attractive young casts, and this is no exception. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillipe, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. play friends
- [“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” Doesn’t Fully Gel](https://silverscreencapture.com/midnight-garden-good-evil/) - SaveDirector DDirector Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (C-) is an awesome atmosphere and environment in search of memorable characters and story. The mood and music conjure the iconic town of Savannah, Georgia, and the sultry, sassy Lady Chablis is marvelous playing herself. But John Cusack, Kevin Spacey, Jude Law and
- [“Good Will Hunting” is Wonderful Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/good-will-hunting/) - Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting (A) is a magnificent coming of age movie about a South Boston troublemaker (Matt Damon) who is also a secret prodigy and learns to give in to his abilities and learn from and love those around him, including an inspiring girl (Minnie Driver) and a fabulous teacher (Robin Williams).
- [“Buddy” (1997) is Bananas](https://silverscreencapture.com/buddy-1997/) - Caroline Thompson's family drama Buddy (C-) chronicles the tale of an ecentric woman (Rene Russo) and her live-in animal companions. There may be a gorilla in her midst, but the story has a few missing links, to say the least. The telling of this true tale seems more like a chore than an opportunity for
- [“Wild” Charts Surprising Course](https://silverscreencapture.com/wild/) - Jean-Marc Vallée's Wild (B-) plots the course of a lost, grieving young woman along a thousand mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail as she grapples in both adventures and flashbacks with the demons that haunt her and the passages of inspiration that could set her free. Reese Witherspoon gives an uncommon, relatable and lived-in
- [Brilliant “Imitation Game” Beguiles](https://silverscreencapture.com/imitation-game/) - Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game (A+) does everything a great movie should: intrigue, involve and inspire. The real-life dramatic and suspenseful story of recalcitrant British WWII code breaker Alan Turing, played masterfully by Benedict Cumberbatch, offers a veritable sudoku of surprises and a surprising testimony to unexpected heroism. The smart screenplay is matched by sterling
- [“Theory of Everything” Exquisite and Unconventional](https://silverscreencapture.com/theory-everything/) - James Marsh's The Theory of Everything (A-) is the unconventional true love story of Stephen and Jane Hawking, portrayed indelibly by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones and based on Jane's memoirs. While bound by the confines of the biopic structure, the film illuminates grand themes of unconditional love, the limits of sacrifice and one's place
- [“Danish Girl” Dazzles](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-danish-girl/) - Pretty as a picture as it slow-dances into a watercolor daydream, Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl (B) is a graceful historical true story often told at a beguiling distance. In 1920's Copenhagen, the plaintive painter played by Eddie Redmayne awakens into his true gender identity with the loving support of a very open-minded artist wife,
- [“Light Between Oceans” Dim](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-movie-review-the-light-between-oceans/) - It's like Thomas Hardy crafted two thirds of an epic and let Nicholas Sparks finish the final chapters. Derek Cianfrance's The Light Between Oceans (C), itself an adaptation of M.L. Stedman's popular post-WWI Australian romance, features Michael Fassbender as a former soldier turned lighthouse keeper and Alicia Vikander as his new bride on an isolating
- [“London Road” a Fascinating New Form](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-london-road/) - Rufus Norris' adaptation of the West End musical London Road (B) is a curious case of hybrid musical documentary. This syncopation of vérité verse attends the tale of the plainspoken citizens of Ipswich, England, changed forever in 2006 by a quintet of killings of prostitutes who had emerged as curbside phantoms on the scene of
- [“The Goat” Tackles Hazing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-goat-2016/) - It's no surprise that a movie featuring Jonas brotherhood is complicated. After enduring a terrifying robbery and assault, a college-bound teenager played by Ben Schnetzer pledges the fraternity of his older sibling played by Nick Jonas. And while Andrew Neel's anti-hazing true life melodrama The Goat (C+) is effective in its assault on the senses,
- [“Paris 05:59: Theo and Hugo” Sexy Then Sentimental](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-paris-0559-theo-and-hugo/) - Jacques Martindeau and Oliver Ducaste's French language film Paris 05:59: Theo and Hugo (B-) can't quite sustain the energy of its kaleidoscopic first act as it depicts an unexpected chronicle of young love with unfathomable origins. The central gay couple meets in a sex club in a series of sequences that might make the Marquis
- [“BFG” an Oddball Family Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-bfg-2016/) - Steven Spielberg earns a C+ for The BFG (aka The Big Friendly Giant), and this family film is decidedly a GNAS (grower, not a shower), largely languid for nearly two thirds of its length and then unexpectedly rising like a wonder of Gulliver's wanderlust to its rather lively and even mildly emotional climax. Child actor
- [“Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” is Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/mike-and-dave/) - For a film about a foursome of millennials behaving badly, Jake Szymanski's comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (B) gets high marks for laughs and even a heartfelt moment or two. Zac Efron and Adam DeVine play troublemaking brothers known for making other peoples' weddings all about themselves with their stag antics. Their attempt
- [“Magic Mike XXL” Isn’t Any Less Shallow](https://silverscreencapture.com/magic-mike-xxl/) - Gregory Jacobs' Magic Mike XXL (C+) takes a long time to get to the money shot: twenty minutes of wish fulfillment by a sextet of reunited male strippers in the form of some crazy cool choreography. The film mostly meanders through road trip, "let's put on a show," and several other genres before it lands
- [Comedy “Pitch Perfect” Takes Viewers Inside A Capella Competitions](https://silverscreencapture.com/pitch-perfect/) - Jason Moore's Pitch Perfect (B) is a charming, often funny and very musical look at the world of competitive collegiate a capella singing groups. It's a great showcase for Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin and Rebel Wilson, who often steals the show as "Fat Amy." Just when it seems to devolve into gross-out humor or overly
- [“Pitch Perfect 2” Brings On the Sonic Sisterhood](https://silverscreencapture.com/pitch-perfect-2/) - Furious 7 delivered a winning formula earlier this spring: a diverse, likable ensemble with over-the-top automotive stunts and even a bit of nostalgia. Replace race cars with riffs, and you have the imminently pleasing aca-comedy sequel Pitch Perfect 2 (B+), sure to please the franchise faithful. Elizabeth Banks, who repeats her funny gig as a
- [“Punch Drunk Love” is Director PTA Having Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/punch-drunk-love/) - At around an hour and a half, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love (B-) is a quirky trifle from a director who’s accustomed to directing an opus. Adam Sandler’s character is a schmuck with rage issues, but he’s paired with the super-sweet Emily Watson in a romance. To the tune of Jon Brion’s harmonium and
- [Scorsese Dream Project “Gangs of New York” is Epic, Uneven](https://silverscreencapture.com/gangs-new-york/) - Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York (B-) is an epic historical drama set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of Lower Manhattan. While Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz are fine in their roles, it is Daniel Day-Lewis who steals the show as Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, the crime boss and political kingmaker
- [Tom Hanks is “Captain Phillips” and It’s Great](https://silverscreencapture.com/captain-phillips/) - Director Paul Greengrass takes a real-life news story about the cargo ship captain who saves his crew from an attack by Somali pirates and makes it surprisingly fresh and intense in Captain Phillips (B+). Tom Hanks gives a grizzled, commanding performance in the titular role; and newcomer Barkhad Abdi is a revelation as the armed
- [“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Slightly Better](https://silverscreencapture.com/hobbit-desolation-smaug/) - The second chapter in the Middle Earth set dwarf dynasty is slightly more interesting than its plodding prequel predecessor, upgrading Peter Jackson's Hobbit 2 to a C+. Basically (1) an elfin forest needs better arachne-pest control, (2) a river escape in wine barrels drifts the adventurers to a lethargic lake town and (3) dwarves and
- [“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Unravels Jackson’s Middle Earth Charm](https://silverscreencapture.com/hobbit-unexpected-journey/) - The most unexpected thing about Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (C-) is what a letdown it is after his famous Middle Earth trilogy that came before it. If the Lord of the Rings novels were each dense books distilled into what amounts to a mini-series of episodic wonders, The Hobbit is a light
- [“Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” a Satisfying Finale](https://silverscreencapture.com/lord-rings-return-king/) - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (A) has such a graceful finale, director Peter Jackson ends it three or four times. But it’s hard to admonish this visionary for wanting to take an extended curtain call to send off such a magnificent cast of characters at the end of what has become
- [“Shattered Glass” Depicts the Terror of Living a Lie](https://silverscreencapture.com/shattered-glass/) - Writer/director Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass (A) may give you an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach as you watch its conman antihero (a captivating Hayden Christensen) play loose with the truth as he makes up stories at The New Republic magazine. It’s a wrenching look at the journalism profession through the eyes of
- [“Camp” is Great Fun with Theatre Kids in Spotlight](https://silverscreencapture.com/camp/) - Todd Graff’s Camp (B) is a joyous ode to growing up, making friends and finding your voice. Set at a summer camp for kids who want to be Broadway stars, there is enough backstage drama to fill the great white wilderness as the teens overcome their outcast status and find themselves center stage in their
- [“Hulk” (2003) Doesn’t Know What It’s Trying to Be](https://silverscreencapture.com/hulk-2003/) - A rare misfire from acclaimed director Ang Lee, the comic book thriller Hulk (C-) is schizophrenic indeed. Ostensibly it's supposed to be an action movie; but in trying to draw out the human elements characteristic of his greatest works, Lee creates a soapy, off-the-rails domestic drama. The story about the man who becomes a monster
- [“The Incredible Hulk” (2008) Gets its Action Footing](https://silverscreencapture.com/incredible-hulk-2008/) - Rebooting the legend after Ang Lee's esoteric flop five year before, Louis Letterier's The Incredible Hulk (B) reminds viewers from the opening frames that this is an action movie, pure and simple. A parkeur-style chase across rooftops is just the beginning as the film winds through a global adventure wuth Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/THe
- [“Milk” a Trailblazer](https://silverscreencapture.com/milk/) - Gus Van Sant’s Milk (A) is a stirring biopic, faithfully recreating a San Francisco of the 1970’s and, as embodied by Sean Penn, giving a star turn of an American hero in Harvey Milk. The film blends personal and political triumphs, with a touching performance by James Franco as Milk’s love interest. The sometimes avant
- [“Iron Man” a Superhero Delight](https://silverscreencapture.com/iron-man/) - Jon Favreau's Iron Man (B+) is a giddy, inventive adventure that gives talented actor Robert Downey Jr. the role of a lifetime. As genius Tony Stark who refashions himself as a magnificent flying machine, Downey carries the high-flying comic book adventures on his shoulders. Quick with a quip and fast with the action, he grounds
- [“Iron Man 3” Finds More Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/iron-man-3/) - Shane Black's Iron Man 3 (B-) is a bit daffier than its predecessors but entertaining nonetheless. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Patrow are back, joined by Ben Kingsley as a vexing villain. After the other Iron Man films and The Avengers, the plot just doesn't pack as much punch, but it's still a lot of
- [2010 Remake of “True Grit” a Stunner](https://silverscreencapture.com/true-grit-2010/) - True Grit (A) is another masterpiece from the Coen Brothers with superb acting from the leads and enough adventure to please western film purists. It's a fun, feisty and rightly acclaimed modern classic in the Western milieu with Jeff Bridges in the "Rooster Cogburn" role formerly inhabited by John Wayne. Matt Damon and Josh Brolin
- [“Fargo” a Comic Noir Triumph](https://silverscreencapture.com/fargo/) - They say that God is in the details. If this is the case, filmmaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen find a multitude of moviemaking miracles in the strange terrain of Fargo (A-), a curious murder mystery full of sardonic humor, offbeat characters and unconventional wisdom. This is a great case of bleak chic, from the
- [Coen Brothers go “Inside Llewyn Davis”](https://silverscreencapture.com/inside-llewin-davis/) - Let the impeccable period detail, stirring folk music and dark comic details of Joel and Ethan Coen's Inside Llewin Davis (B) wash over you, and you're in for a film you can't take your eyes or ears off. Newcomer Oscar Isaac is the standout performer as the titular vagrant ruffian whose sins in life are
- [“Dallas Buyers Club” is Great Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/dallas-buyers-club/) - Jean-Marc Vallée's Dallas Buyers Club (B+) is a powerful true story about an unlikely pioneer in HIV/AIDS drug treatment as embodied by Matthew McConaughey in a role that stretches him beyond anything folks have ever seen him do. His macho, emaciated and homophobic hero, coupled with a sympathetic doctor (Jennifer Garner) and a transgendered business
- [“People vs. Larry Flynt” is Fascinating Free Speech Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/people-vs-larry-flynt/) - Milos Forman’s The People vs. Larry Flynt (A+) challenges viewers to re-think views on free speech as its antihero protagonist played by Woody Harrelson is a notorious peddler of pornography. His stripped bride played by Courtney Love helps him mount an unexpected defense in an unorthodox look at the limits of decency and how people
- [“Mother” (1996) is Comedy Bliss](https://silverscreencapture.com/mother/) - The auteur of anxiety Albert Brooks stars in and directs Mother (A-), a film about a twice-divorced writer who must move back in with his mom. She is magnificently played by the legendary Debbie Reynolds. This generation gap comedy presents an odd couple worth watching.
- [Rush Performance Buoys “Shine”](https://silverscreencapture.com/shine/) - Great music, superior performances and an engaging true life story of a pianist who suffers a mental breakdown culminate in a touching experience in Scott Hicks’ Shine (B+). Most of the film’s moments are genuinely mobbing, and Geoffrey Rush is a revelation.
- [“William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet” (1996) Modernizes Classic](https://silverscreencapture.com/william-shakespeares-romeo-juliet-1996/) - Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet (B+) features a Floridian gang war set to iambic pentameter and a soliloquy submerged in the deep end of a swimming pool. It’s a tropical-infused, altogether modern take, set in America with young stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes doing superb work as the central tragic lovers. The director has
- [“The Mirror Has Two Faces” is Enjoyable Streisand Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/mirror-two-faces/) - Barbra Streisand stars and takes the director’s chair for The Mirror Has Two Faces (A-), a superb romantic comedy about the modern myths of beauty and relationships. Paired with Jeff Bridges as dating professors, it’s an intellectual look at the modern rituals of romance. Lauren Bacall is a hoot as Streisand’s character’s sassy mom. The
- [“English Patient” a Dramatic Epic](https://silverscreencapture.com/english-patient/) - Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient (A-) is about love lost, planes crashed, bodies destroyed, candles extinguished and memories forever buried in the sand of a lonely desert. Gorgeously shot and leisurely paced with a modern story and flashbacks, the film includes a central doomed romance in pre-WWII North Africa between Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott
- [“Wreck-It Ralph” is Family Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/wreck-ralph/) - Rich Moore’s Wreck-It Ralph (B+) is a highly creative and charming CGI fantasy about an 8-bit '80s arcade game character who must become a hero of a different kind in today's virtual age. Waves of nostalgia, knowing in-jokes and clever hazards help this sometimes overlong film please audiences of all ages.
- [Musical Movie “Les Misérables” is an Intimate Story Against Sprawling Landscape](https://silverscreencapture.com/les-miserables/) - As a movie musical, Tom Hooper's Les Miserables (A) gets nearly every sonic and emotional note right. Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne and Anne Hathaway are the standout performers in this silver scall-singing spectacular that toggles between moments both intimate and epic. Fans of the theatrical show will have a lot to love, and the modest
- [“The Intern” an Enjoyable Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-intern-2015/) - Calling a movie a treasure trove for HR professionals looking for great examples of key learnings in the intergenerational workplace isn't damning it with faint praise. In fact, Nancy Meyers' The Intern (B), in which Robert De Niro is a widower who lands a "senior citizen internship" for an e-commerce impresario played by Anne Hathaway,
- [“We Are Your Friends” Misses Story Beats](https://silverscreencapture.com/we-are-your-friends/) - For a film ostensibly about the pulsating best of electronic dance music, Max Joseph's We Are Your Friends (D) is listless and low energy, and even the music is only good on occasion. A vehicle for Zac Efron to flex his musical muscles in the central role as an up-and-coming DJ in San Fernando Valley,
- [On Tightrope of Entertainment, “The Walk” Stumbles](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-walk/) - Even though the film purports to be about dreaming up the impossible, Robert Zemeckis's The Walk (D) has larger plausibility issues in the form of plot, performances and purpose. This film about the French daredevil who walked on a wire from one Twin Tower to the other in 1974 NYC goes down as one of
- [Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” (2010) a Mixed Bag](https://silverscreencapture.com/alice-wonderland-2010/) - Tim Burton's live action take on Alice in Wonderland (B-) is pretty enjoyable, relying, as he does, in style over substance. The visually inventive director has a field day with the 3-D and whimsical characters; it's a "drink me" dreamscape of oddities to ogle. The film is a pretty fun confection but largely forgettable. Mia
- [“Still Alice” is Weak But Julianne Moore is Strong](https://silverscreencapture.com/still-alice/) - In adapting a popular novel to film, writer/directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland brought one thing and one thing only to the table: Julianne Moore, and her lead performance in Still Alice (C+) is head and shoulders above the material and all other performers. As a 50-year-old linguistics professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease,
- [“The Babadook” is Scary](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-babadook/) - Writer/director Jennifer Kent's The Babadook (B) is a highly suspenseful Australian-Canadian psychological horror film focused on Essie Davis in a terrific performance as a grieving single mom and superb child actor Noah Wiseman as her disturbed boy. When they discover a children's book about a maniacal madman who is trying to infiltrate their home, the
- [“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” a Winning Installment](https://silverscreencapture.com/captain-america-winter-soldier/) - Anthony and Joe Russo's Captain America: The Winter Soldier (B+) wisely eschews CGI-heavy creature effects for French Connection-style shoot-em-up combat and cat-and-mouse brinkmanship. The formerly frozen super soldier played by Chris Evans owns his shield-wielding role this time around as a morally grounded hero amidst specters of villainy, greed and terrorism. Scarlett Johannson is a
- [“Captain America: Civil War” an Excellent Superhero Heist Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-captain-america-civil-war/) - Now this is a heist! Anthony and Joe Russo ostensibly entered the picture with the directing gig for a third Captain America film, but they have actually stolen the show by helming the third, most ambitious Avengers movie. Their Captain America: Civil War (A) is full of delightful surprises, spending its first hour tracing geopolitical
- [“Captain America: The First Avenger” Fun, Old-Fashioned](https://silverscreencapture.com/captain-america-first-avenger-2011/) - Joe Johnston's Captain America: The First Avenger (B-) is an old-fashioned comic book adventure with Chris Evans as a weakling who volunteers for an experiment that turns him into a super-soldier in WWII and ultimately a superhero. Evans is appealing as the noble hero, and sequences with his buddy played by Sebastian Stan set the
- [“Bridesmaids” Uproariously Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/bridesmaids/) - Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids (B+) is a gut-busting comedy about women behaving badly. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are standouts in this ensemble about ladies going a little nuts on the path to a friend’s wedding. Gross-out gags, witty lines and sociological commentary aplenty fills up the screen for this shrewdly honest and very adult movie.
- [“My Best Friend's Wedding” Wins by Casting Roberts Against Type](https://silverscreencapture.com/best-friends-wedding/) - P.J. Hogan’s My Best Friend’s Wedding (A) gamely casts Julia Roberts as the woman who doesn’t get the guy, and that drives her character crazy. Knocking the Pretty Woman off her pedestal turns out to be a winning formula for a spiteful revenge comedy co-starring Cameron Diaz, Dermot Mulroney and Rupert Everett. It’s cheeky and
- [“Lost World” is Subpar “Jurassic Park” Sequel Despite Spielberg Helming](https://silverscreencapture.com/lost-world-jurassic-park-1997/) - Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World (C-) unleashes more Jusassic Park dinosaurs but little of the imaginative whimsy for which he is famous. This unfocused action film coasts on a meandering plot with bland characters and a lack of discipline that sometimes results in self-parody.
- [“Jurassic World” Exhumes Fossils of Structure Without Meat](https://silverscreencapture.com/jurassic-world/) - You know your movie is weak when it compares unfavorably to that monster-invades-a-theme-park classic Jaws 3-D. Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World (C-) neither rediscovers nor reinvigorates its dinosaurs-on-the-loose franchise and squanders its inevitability as a blockbuster hit with a soggy script, ho-hum effects and misplaced momentum. Aimlessly dispatching stock characters like a Sims game on continuous
- [“Spy” (2015) a Funny Treat](https://silverscreencapture.com/spy-2015/) - Spy (B+), the latest collaboration between Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and his comic muse Melissa McCarthy, is both a successful send-up of espionage films and a running showcase of hilarious dialogue and pratfalls. Although it falls into the overlong territory (Judd Apatow started this trend in comedies), it is stuffed with double-crosses, witty quips and
- [“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is Solid Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy/) - A lived-in performance by Gary Oldman is a standout in the taut espionage ensemble Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (B+). The film's slow-boil pace and period detail are rewarding as members of the British intelligence elite dodge double-crosses with duplicitous Cold War villains. Thomas Hardy, Colin Firth and Toby Jones are all good in bit roles.
- [“Pride” (2014) an Inspiring Tale of Community](https://silverscreencapture.com/pride-2014/) - Matthew Warchus’s Pride (B-) is a delightful true story about a group of London-based gay and lesbian activists who raise money for families affected by the British miners’ strike in 1984. When the national union passes on their support, the activists take their donations directly to a small mining village in Wales, resulting in an
- [Luc Besson’s “Lucy” Languishes](https://silverscreencapture.com/lucy/) - Luc Besson’s Lucy (C-) has momentum and drive and a super-cool premise; it just doesn’t really know where to start or end. The film theorizes that if people could harness one hundred percent of the potential that lies in the human brain, they would be omniscient, omnipresent and a little nuts. As the titular character,
- [“Gone Girl” Sometimes Rises Above Pedestrian Material](https://silverscreencapture.com/gone-girl/) - Director David Fincher's brilliant career has been marked by incredible displays of calculating gamesmanship, manifested in modern-day classics such as Se7en, Zodiac, Fight Club, The Social Network and, well, The Game, so it's not altogether inconceivable that he'd adapt a twisty thriller based on a popular novel about the chess match of modern marriage in
- [“Girl on the Train” is Rather Mundane](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-girl-on-the-train/) - Tate Taylor's The Girl on the Train (C-) knocks off the time-hopping narrative structure of Memento - with alcoholism and blackouts replacing the novelty of constant short term memory loss. And although this new novel-to-screen adaptation has the occasional promise of another recent adult thriller done well, The Gift, it's more akin to the ham-fisted
- [“Sicario” a Smart Thriller on U.S. Border](https://silverscreencapture.com/sicario-2015/) - A meditative and engaging slow-burn thriller about U.S. operatives infiltrating the drug culture on our Southern border, Denis Villeneuve's Sicario (B) unravels its mysteries in small bursts but doesn't quite achieve the expected heft of its high-minded messages. For a while it is so focused on visuals of topographies such as highways and desert passageways
- [“Bridge of Spies” a Perfect “Dad Movie”](https://silverscreencapture.com/bridge-of-spies/) - Hey, kids! There's a new movie you can recommend to both your dad and your mom, whether they enjoy spy stories of two-for-one BOGO deals. Steven Spielberg's old-fashioned Cold War-set Bridge of Spies (B+) thrusts a real-life insurance lawyer played by Tom Hanks into a role negotiating the exchange of a Russian spy for two,
- [“That Thing You Do!” A Fun, Frothy Confection](https://silverscreencapture.com/thing/) - Tom Hanks’ directorial debut, That Thing You Do! (B+) is a light, fizzy film about the meteoric rise of a one-hit wonder band to the height of fame and fortune. Hanks as manager and the bright young cast he has assembled are a delight to watch as their characters sort out relationships once the band
- [“Space Jam” Scores with Families](https://silverscreencapture.com/space-jam/) - Basketball superstar Michael Jordan proves to be the ultimate good sport in his film debut opposite Bugs Bunny in Joe Pytka’s family adventure Space Jam (B-). This blend of live action and animation surrounding an intergalactic hoops game to solve a rivalry is mostly throwaway, but the charms of favorite Looney Tunes characters will keep
- [“The Rock” (1996) is Fun Alcatraz Action Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/rock/) - Director Michael Bay’s Alcatraz redemption takes place as Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage achieve breakout success in the action-filled confines of a notorious prison in The Rock (B+). This is an action lover’s wild ride that doesn’t give up for a single frame of Bay’s chronicle of escape artists in full-throttle momentum. The film compensates
- [Original 1996 “Mission: Impossible” Enjoyable](https://silverscreencapture.com/mission-impossible/) - Brian de Palma’s cross-continental action film Mission: Impossible (B+) is a bit heavy on the high-tech mumbo jumbo and doesn’t really give its wooden lead (Tom Cruise) much character development. But as a sturdy summer blockbuster based on a classic TV show, it holds its own. There are some dazzling set pieces and stunts, the
- [“Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation” an Enjoyable Action Entry](https://silverscreencapture.com/mission-impossible-rogue-nation/) - In a series that hit its peak in the previous installment, Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (B-) is nonetheless a perfectly competent thriller with a durable action star. There's one really great heist sequence involving having to swim to unlock a computer code, but it's mainly mission improbable with car chases and thwarted
- [“The Gift” (2015) a Psychological Surprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-gift-2015/) - Writer/director/actor Joel Edgerton pulls off the surprise of the summer with a psychological suspense film that gets at the heart of relationships, memories and truth. The Gift (B+) centers on a relationship between Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall as a couple relocating to the hills of Los Angeles, hoping to rekindle a spark dimmed by
- [“Straight Outta Compton” a Great Gangsta Rap Biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/straight-outta-compton/) - F. Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton (A-) tells the origin story of rap group N.W.A. with a sense of immediacy that reflects today's headlines and a genuine gravitas that traces the family tree of the gangsta rap movement with poignancy and panache. Jason Mitchell is the breakout star as charismatic tragic hero Eazy-E, with O'Shea
- [“Ex Machina” is Surprising Slow-Burn Sci-Fi](https://silverscreencapture.com/ex-machina/) - Slow and cerebral but definitely worthwhile viewing, Alex Garland's Ex Machina (B) is a fascinating drama about a meek computer engineer (Domhnall Gleeson) lured to the secluded home of the reclusive head of his tech company (Oscar Isaac) to interrogate a gorgeous cyborg (Alicia Vikander) he has created. There's an air of mystery and oneupsmanship
- [“Arrival” is Spectacular Sci-Fi](https://silverscreencapture.com/arrival-2016/) - Every couple of years, directors as diverse as Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, John Sayles, John Carpenter, Robert Zemeckis and Christopher Nolan add to the pantheon of films addressing making contact with alien life. The notion of actually communicating with interstellar visitors, so memorably celebrated in five iconic music notes in the finale act of Close
- [Nolan’s “Interstellar” is Riveting](https://silverscreencapture.com/interstellar-2014/) - Christopher Nolan's ambition exceeds his reach in the often glorious and dizzyingly satisfying outer space adventure Interstellar (B+). Matthew McConaughey valiantly anchors the film as a widowed father and retired pilot living on a midwest farm who gets activated into a journey to find an inhabitable planet for the future of the human race. The
- [“A.I. Artificial Intelligence” an Austere Spielberg/Kubrick Hybrid](https://silverscreencapture.com/artificial-intelligence/) - Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (B-) is full of so many good ideas, many germinated by the late Stanley Kubrick for decades, that it’s a shame the final package is a bit, well, robotic. The story starts off with Frances O’Connor and Sam Robards adopting an android child, played by Haley Joel Osment, but they
- [“An Education” (2009) is Sublime](https://silverscreencapture.com/education/) - Among many end-of-year prestige pics, here's a gem: Lone Scherfig's An Education (A+) in which surefire Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan plays a determined British schoolgirl who falls topsy turvy for older man Peter Sarsgaard. The film captured young love with timeless, poignant truth as moments of Lolita-ish unease heighten the heroine's struggle with moral ambiguities.
- [“The Way Way Back” is Nostalgic Summer Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/way-way-back/) - Being a sucker for movies about lonely teens gaining new confidence, it's no surprise that I adored Jim Rash and Nat Faxon's The Way Way Back (A), a coming of age dramedy buoyed by a charming ensemble including Liam James as the troubled hero and Sam Rockwell as his unlikely role model. A beachside summer
- [“Room 237” Explores Curse of the Overlook Hotel](https://silverscreencapture.com/room-237/) - Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 (B-), the documentary about eccentric conspiracy theories around Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, is an intriguing dissection of one puzzling, polarizing movie. Despite the crazy rabbit holes ranging from the film being a subliminal meditation on genocide or a cover-up for the director's alleged involvement in a fake lunar landing, the proceedings
- [“Grandma” (2015) a Lovely Character Study](https://silverscreencapture.com/grandma/) - Despite his involvement in films ranging from American Pie to About a Boy, very little could prepare viewers for the glorious relationship dramedy that writer/director Paul Weitz has delivered with Grandma (A-), which frankly feels like an indie from a first-time visionary. Lily Tomlin gives a career-best performance as Elle, a free-spirited misanthrope and widow
- [“Carol” a Lovely Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/carol/) - The 1950's New York City of Todd Haynes' Carol (B+) is gorgeous to behold. A stardust fantasy inked in pinks, draped in lavender and spiced with holiday peppermint sticks, it is also home to a burgeoning forbidden romance between an unhappy housewife played by Cate Blanchett and a timid shopkeeper played by Rooney Mara. Haynes
- [“4th Man Out” a Charming Indie About a Bro with a Secret](https://silverscreencapture.com/4th-man-out/) - Andrew Nackman's 4th Man Out (B+) is a funny and naturally charming comedy about a 24-year-old small-town everyman auto mechanic (Evan Todd) who comes out as gay to his entourage of three very heterosexual bros, played by a pack of TV comedy actors Parker Young, Chord Overstreet and Jon Gabrus. The dynamic of revealing his
- [Rogen vs. Efron in Comedy “Neighbors” (2014)](https://silverscreencapture.com/neighbors-2014/) - It's Porky's meets Poltergeist as raunchy highjinks and the purging of a suburban menace swirl into a likely summer comedy hit. Nicholas Stoller's Neighbors (B) takes the high-concept conceit of young parents (Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) whose domestic life is turned upside-down by the arrival of a Zac Efron-led fraternity into the house next
- [“Fed Up” Documents American Sugar Fix](https://silverscreencapture.com/fed/) - Mary Poppins may have crooned that a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, but a powerful new documentary provides some tough medicine indeed about how the sugar in the modern American diet is killing off an increasingly obese generation. Sarah Soechtig's Fed Up (A) blends dynamic storytelling techniques with individual kids' stories interlaced
- [“Amazing Spider-Man 2” Darker But Enjoyable](https://silverscreencapture.com/amazing-spider-man-2/) - Director Mark Webb is in fine command of the energy, acting, humor, gravitas, story and effects for the entertaining summer comic book movie The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (B). Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone lend their considerable charms to the leading roles in a sequel that is part romance as the central duo tries to balance
- [“Amazing Spider-Man” a Fun Reboot](https://silverscreencapture.com/amazing-spider-man-2012/) - A reboot that couldn't come soon enough after the mediocrity of the Sam Raimi trilogy, Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man (B) focuses firmly on the human dynamic of the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character and succeeds largely on the strength of inspired casting with Andrew Garfield in the leading role plus Emma Stone as love interest Gwen
- [Allure of “Spider-Man 3” Doesn’t Stick](https://silverscreencapture.com/spider-man-3/) - Sam Raimi throws in everything against his cinematic spiderweb to see what sticks in the overloaded, bloated and often irritating Spider-Man 3 (C-). It basically becomes the third film in a trilogy by default as viewers watch the oxygen seap out of the enterprise in a way that basically proclaims, "There's really not much more to do or
- [“Spider-Man” (2002) is a Bit of a Bore](https://silverscreencapture.com/spider-man-2002/) - Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (C) skews too safe and squeaky-clean with Tobey Maguire a particularly bland central casting choice stuck playing the dual role of the superhero and Peter Parker. After dispensing with the mythology of how the teen becomes the "arachninspired" legend, Raimi plunges the story into a rather weak romance with Mary Jane (a dead-eyed
- [“Kill Bill: Volume 1” is Giddy, Gritty Bloodbath Delight](https://silverscreencapture.com/kill-bill-volume-1/) - Kill Bill: Volume 1 (B+) is vintage writer/director Quentin Tarantino material if ever there were. When "The Bride" (a fierce and feral Uma Thurman) is gunned down and nearly killed at her own wedding, she embarks on a global vengeance spree against the crime ring responsible. The film chronicles, in out of order episodes, of
- [“Kill Bill: Volume 2” a Somewhat Satisfying Conclusion](https://silverscreencapture.com/kill-bill-volume-2/) - Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 2 (B-) is the necessary conclusion to the vengeance spree being enacted by Uma Thurman's jilted Bride; but it's grittier and less fun than its predecessor. David Carradine gets more screen time as Bill along with a game cast. The action and body count continue to mount. It's still very
- [Père Noël is a Ne’er-do-well in “Bad Santa”](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-bad-santa-2003/) - Père Noël is a ne'er-do-well in Terry Swigoff's hilarious dark comedy Bad Santa (B+) in which Billy Bob Thornton plays the titular patron saint of the holidays as a drunk, foul-mouthed scoundrel and thief using his department store appearances as a front for his crimes. Lauren Graham, Tony Cox, John Ritter and Bernie Mac are
- [“Your Friends and Neighbors” Features Snarky Ensemble](https://silverscreencapture.com/friends-neighbors/) - Neil LaBute's Your Friends and Neighbors (B+) assembles a perfectly nasty ensemble of characters to showcase the darkness of modern-day suburbia. Although big stars such as Ben Stiller give the film marquee value, it's LaBute's tart dialogue on central display. Catherine Keener and Jason Patric are among the most deliciously hateful, with the latter' third-act
- [“Tickled” Explores Fetish Underworld](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-tickled/) - A lark gets quite dark as a fascinating story unfolds in David Farrier and Dylan Reeve's documentary Tickled (A-). Farrier, an offbeat New Zealand journalist, uncovers an odd strain of "competitive tickling" viral videos inspiring him to plumb the depths of a mystery wormhole that takes him on an unexpected crusade around the globe. With
- [Technically, “Gravity” is Great](https://silverscreencapture.com/gravity/) - A technical tour de force and a wonder to behold, Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity (B) is nonetheless weighed down by an oppressive storyline, stock characters and a script marred with a touch of self-importance. Both Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are bit characters eclipsed by incredible outer space floating effects. It's highly recommended as a showcase
- [“Prisoners” (2013) a Gripping Action Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/prisoners/) - An absorbing dramatic thriller about the lengths people will go to in the wake of child abduction, Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners (A) is this year's master class of acting. Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman go to extremes as central protagonists obsessed with solving a twisted mystery. It's a labyrinth of moral ambiguity and cinematic delights.
- [“12 Years a Slave” a Harrowing Masterpiece](https://silverscreencapture.com/12-years-slave/) - Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (A-) is a harrowing true story told masterfully. Journeyman actor Chiwetel Ejiofor creates the role of a lifetime as a free man kidnapped in 1841 into a life as a Southern slave. Gorgeously art directed and unflinching in its brutality, the film earns its emotions and is gripping throughout.
- [“Catching Fire” a Letdown in “Hunger Games” Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/catching-fire/) - The second of the Hunger Games films is called Catching Fire (C-). It rarely does. Director Francis Lawrence's unremarkable style can best be described as a cloud of smoke that poisons most of the charm and intrigue right out of the dome. When this sequel bothers to do more than simply retread the formula of
- [“Hunger Games” a Dystopian Original](https://silverscreencapture.com/hunger-games/) - The Hunger Games (B+), directed by Gary Ross, imagines a dystopian future in which territories of our modern land have to fight against each other on live television as sacrifice and bloodsport for the ruling political regime. Jennifer Lawrence, our archer heroine, is ready to break all the rules as she enters the arena. The
- [Game Over: “Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2”](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2/) - It's days of whine and poses as Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen trudges along to the prolonged conclusion of Francis Lawrence's excruciating The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (D+). For a heroine who came on the scene so strong in the original film, it really was a long slog through three more movies to drain
- [“Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I” Milks Formula for More](https://silverscreencapture.com/hunger-games-mockingjay-part/) - It's becoming abundantly clear that Jennifer Lawrence's protagonist is much more interesting as a fighting archer than a reluctant war propagandist, but the protracted franchise must march on to rebellion and more box office receipts. Francis Lawrence's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part I (C-) is one of those creaky transitional episodes in which much
- [2022 Atlanta Film Festival Features 27 World Premieres](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-atlanta-film-festival-features-27-world-premieres-april-21-may-1-2022/) - The 46th annual Atlanta Film Festival + Creative Conference (ATLFF) revealed key programming highlights, including Opening and Closing Night presentations and the full lineup of selected works from a record-breaking nearly 10,000 submissions. Highlighted by the Opening Night presentation of 892 and Closing Night film Mija, 11 Marquee screenings will combine Hollywood star power with
- [“LEGO Movie” a Tiny Triumph](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-lego-movie/) - Chris Miller and Phil Lord's The LEGO Movie (B) is a clever, comedic and crowd-pleasing animated romp that will appeal to both kids and adults. Chris Pratt is the heart of the film as the central character who must summon his spirit as a master builder in a conformist world. Filled with kaleidoscopic vistas, thrilling
- ["LEGO Batman Movie" a Fun Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-lego-batman-movie/) - Director Chris McKay shows audiences exactly where a famous caped crusader gets those wonderful toys in the whimsical mini-fig laden animated feature The LEGO Batman Movie (B). A spinoff of 2014's similarly hilarious The LEGO Movie, this new movie's creators prove the novelty behind these films is not a one-brick pony. Will Arnett successfully voices
- [“Batman Begins” a Glorious Reboot by Nolan](https://silverscreencapture.com/batman-begins/) - Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (A-) is a thrilling reboot with Christian Bale as the caped crusader. I loved how it began unexpectedly in the Himalayas before settling in Gotham City. Nolan’s particular talents fit nicely with labyrinthine plot devices, elaborate inventions and double-crosses. Cillian Murphy is ok as The Scarecrow and Katie Holmes barely registers
- [“Dark Knight” a Wonderful Batman Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/dark-knight/) - Buoyed by a brilliant performance by Heath Ledger as criminal mastermind The Joker, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (B) is a complex superhero movie that posits that people dressed as bats and harlequins could really be in the realm of political theater and then asks what would happen if they were. The addition of Aaron
- [“Zero Dark Thirty” is Wonderful Wartime Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/zero-dark-thirty/) - Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (A) is an extraordinary procedural film that plumbs the depths of terrorist tradecraft, intelligence gathering and hitting one's target. Expertly written and filmed, it is anchored by a sterling performance by Jessica Chastain. You may already know the ending, but this journey is well worth taking.
- [“Swiss Army Man” is Blissfully Creative Original Fantasy](https://silverscreencapture.com/swiss-army-man/) - A genre hopping film about being lost in the wilderness and summoning the courage that only a best friend can help you achieve, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan's Sundance discovery Swiss Army Man (A-) is the year's cinematic curiosity as well as a mild revelation. Paul Dano turns in a superb performance as a young
- [“Edge of Seventeen” (2016) Shows Promise](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-edge-of-seventeen-2016/) - There are three reasons to see Kelly Fremon Craig's The Edge of Seventeen (C+): the continually wondrous Hailee Steinfeld doing her darnedest with the film's frustrating and frumpy front-woman role, Woody Harrelson in an understated supporting part as her high school teacher and part-time consigliere to her darkest impulses and newcomer Hayden Szeto as her
- [Almodovar’s “Parallel Mothers” is Another Stunner with Perfect Penélope Cruz](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-parallel-mothers-2021/) - Primary colors, twisty storylines and strong female characters abound in the directorial DNA as two moms embark on two very different and connected experiences against a searing political backdrop. The love child of a telenovela type story and Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar's distinct sensibilities at the helm of Parallel Mothers (B+) makes for an engrossing
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival Announces 2024 Program](https://silverscreencapture.com/2024-atlanta-jewish-film-festival-announces-program/) - Atlanta Jewish Film Festival announced its 24th annual event, with expanded 24-day line-up Feb. 13-26, 2024 in theaters, and streaming encore Feb. 27-March 7.
- [Three Characters In Search of a Christmas: “The Holdovers” is a Triumph](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-holdovers-2023/) - The holiday-set prep school drama The Holdovers film is highly recommended.
- [Podcasters React to Spiritual Purpose Behind “Killers of the Flower Moon”](https://silverscreencapture.com/seeing-is-believing-video-killers-of-the-flower-moon-2023/) - Podcast about spiritual side of Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon movie.
- ["Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is Rip-Roaring Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/indiana-jones-temple-doom/) - Steven Spielberg pulls out all the stops and emphasizes an “anything goes” theme with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (A-) as Harrison Ford’s titular protagonist helps a village in India try to recover sacred stones that have been stolen by a cult of villains who have been kidnapping and sacrificing children. The sidekicks
- ["Silence of the Lambs" is Spellbinding Horror/Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/silence-lambs/) - The eager but naïve FBI agent played by Jodie Foster and the imprisoned cannibal played by Anthony Hopkins are the serial killer tracking duo for the ages in Jonathan Demme’s riveting thriller.
- ["Star Wars: A New Hope" Puts Hero's Journey in Outer Space](https://silverscreencapture.com/star-wars-episode-iv-new-hope/) - George Lucas’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (A) is a swashbuckling outer space adventure inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. Reluctant hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) teams up with a surly smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and a mysterious wizard (Sir Alec Guinness) to help rescue the strong-willed Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) from
- ["Shawshank Redemption" a Magnificent Drama of Friendship Against the Odds](https://silverscreencapture.com/shawshank-redemption/) - The Shawshank Redemption (A), written and directed by Frank Darabont, is one of the best movie adaptations of a Stephen King work. Tim Robbins plays a banker imprisoned for murdering his wife and her lover; in Shawshank prison, he befriends a fellow lifer played by Morgan Freeman, known for his ability to smuggle creature comforts
- ["Interview with the Vampire" is Rather Beguiling](https://silverscreencapture.com/interview-vampire-vampire-chronicles/) - Lestat and Louis, the vampires immortalized in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, are holding a blood drive, and you're invited. You won't need a crucifix. Or garlic. Or even a stake. Just bring your desire for thrills and excitement. You're about to experience the ultimate revisionist vampire tale. Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire (B+) is
- ["Ready to Wear (Pret-A-Porter)" Sends Up the Parisian Fashion Scene](https://silverscreencapture.com/ready-wear/) - In the summer of 1994, acclaimed film director Robert Altman threw a huge bash in Paris during the peak of fashion paparazzi. Attracting hoards of celebrities and models to his ten-week gala, Altman unveiled a hyped-up hootenanny, establishing his reputation as the world's premier party host. It's unfortunate that Altman the auteur was making a
- [Both Funny and Foul, "Clerks" is a Great Time](https://silverscreencapture.com/clerks/) - You know the sensation: the feeling you get after gulping a slush drink too fast. The rush to your frozen noggin is unbearable for one brief, piercing moment. Then it stops. It's a revelation, relief or rejuvenation. Writer/director Kevin Smith's Clerks (A) is like that instant of peace when you regain your equilibrium and once
- [Comedy "Mixed Nuts" May Cause Allergic Reaction](https://silverscreencapture.com/mixed-nuts/) - Director Nora Ephron helms her first certified bomb with Mixed Nuts (D) which registers something south of North, east of Ishtar and beyond Heaven's Gate. This holiday clunker starring Steve Martin is a hodgepodge of throwaway jokes and witless situations involving fruitcakes, touch-tone phone options for the suicide hotline and a Yuletide cross-dresser. This loose
- ["Bad Boys" is Not Particularly Funny or Exciting](https://silverscreencapture.com/bad-boys-1995/) - Director Michael Bay could have projected the coming attractions trailer over and over for the full running time of the full-length duration of Bad Boys (F) with the same result. The film is nothing more than a calculated marketing ploy pairing two popular TV stars - Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Martin
- ["Before Sunrise" a Revelatory Glimpse at Young Love, Gen X Style](https://silverscreencapture.com/sunrise/) - Midway through Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise (A+), a character asks, "Isn't everything we're doing in life a way to be loved a little more?" Leading to discussions, revelations, and lingering meditations, this question is but one thread in a tapestry of character study. Sunrise is a celebration of human language that reveals more about its
- ["Bullets Over Broadway" is a Smart Insider Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/bullets-broadway/) - As the main characters mounting a theatrical spectacular in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (A) toast to a world without compromise, deep inside they know they will have to sell out for a sellout performance. Allen's showstopping exploration of art, deals and the art of the deal is a comedic bonbon with John Cusask in
- ["Crimson Tide" is Exciting Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/crimson-tide/) - Tony Scott's Crimson Tide (B+) is a fascinating look at the shades of gray that sometimes collide with a tightly regimented world. The movie's conflict revolves around the mixed interpretation of an emergency signal and how two officers on a U.S. military submarine - Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman - clash in how to lead
- ["Bridges of Madison County" Movie Features Wonderful Performances](https://silverscreencapture.com/bridges-madison-county/) - Director Clint Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison County (A) is a sensitive portrait of middle-aged romance, brought to sumptuous life by a sensitive artist. Who would have guessed a sketchy story about a lonely housewife who has an affair with a drifter over a long weekend would be a catalyst for Eastwood as both director
- [Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" a Chronicle of Bravery](https://silverscreencapture.com/apollo-13/) - Director Ron Howard chronicles the night the lights went out in orbit in Apollo 13 (B+), a powerful drama about a NASA disaster with a strong cast including Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton as astronauts in trouble and Gary Sinese and Ed Harris back in command center. The James Horner music is strong,
- ["Clueless" is an Inspired Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/clueless/) - Amy Heckerling's Clueless (B+) is a hybrid of Ferris Bueller and Jane Austin's Emma and is one of the most perceptive and entertaining comedies about teens in the 90's. Alicia Silverstone commands the screen as the high school matchmaker who finally finds a little love for herself. The film's ribald vocabulary and elaborate fashions make
- ["Babe" (1995) is a Highly Recommended Family Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/babe-1995/) - Look who's oinking! Chris Noonan's Babe is a delightful fable featuring a talking pig protagonist and his human companion (James Cromwell) who enters him into a sheepdog championship. It's a vividly colorful, sunshiny look at finding your place in the world.
- ["Seven" is a Masterful Action Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/seven/) - David Fincher's Seven (A-) is relentless in its sustained somber tone as two detectives - Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman - track down a serial killer inspired by the "Seven Deadly Sins." Unlike typical buddy cop movies, there's no room for levity or comic relief as the central duo plumbs the depths of depravity and faces
- ["Usual Suspects" a Crackling Thriller Mystery](https://silverscreencapture.com/usual-suspects/) - A mixed bag of character actors including Gabriel Byrne and Kevin Spacey headline Bryan Singer's clever mystery The Usual Suspects (B). Good writing and assured pacing keep the interest level high until the final twisty payoff.
- ["The Secret Garden" (1993) is Recommended Family Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/secret-garden/) - Agnieszka Holland's literary adaptation The Secret Garden (B) is an elegantly photographed film that captures the beauty and wonder of a timeless tale of a little girl who brings joy into the home of a lonely man and a garden previously haunted by love and loss. Though it's a bit slow paced, it has fine
- ["Heart and Souls" Features Good Ensemble Work](https://silverscreencapture.com/heart-souls/) - Though too complex at first, Ron Underwood's Heart and Souls (B) generates a compelling story about completing unresolved lives. Robert Downney Jr. and Alfre Woodard are standouts in this feel-good comedy sleeper.
- [Mel Gibson Stars in and Directs "Man Without a Face"](https://silverscreencapture.com/man-without-face/) - Mel Gibson's directorial debut, The Man Without a Face (C+) features the Aussie actor as a deformed teacher who befriends a young loner played by Nick Stahl. Plot lines are predictable as the community citizenry misunderstands the innocent relationship, and Gibson films his deformed self with a strange vanity that still doesn't make hm look
- ["Joy Luck Club" is a Heartwarming Multi-Generational Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/joy-luck-club/) - Wayne Wang's The Joy Luck Club (A) brilliantly explores the relationships between Chinese mothers and their Americanized daughters and tells universal truths about what parents and offspring can learn from one another. Four interlocking stories are deftly balanced, and overlapping flashbacks work surprisingly well to build to a crescendo of heartbreak and release. It's a
- ["Philadelphia" Grapples with AIDS Crisis with Everyman in Lead Role](https://silverscreencapture.com/philadelphia/) - Tom Hanks brought his American Everyman charisma to the moving central performance of a gay lawyer wrongly fired from his firm when he contracts AIDS in Jonathan Demme's stirring powerhouse of a film, Philadelphia (A). As good as Hanks is in the role, it's Denzel Washington as a fellow homophobic attorney who defends him who
- ["Forrest Gump" is Sentimental and Heartwarming](https://silverscreencapture.com/forrest-gump/) - Approaching new opportunities with eternal optimism, The American Character has triumphed over incredible odds through a pastiche of history; and as presented by director Robert Zemeckis in his latest film, he is indeed Forrest Gump (A-), a simple bystander to history played by Tom Hanks who becomes a symbol for the struggle and sentiment of
- ["The Mask" (1994) a Good Match for Jim Carrey Persona](https://silverscreencapture.com/mask/) - In Chuck Russell's The Mask (B), comic actor Jim Carrey literally saves face from a few tepid film vehicles in a manic series of misadventures when a man puts on a mysterious green visage that has a life of its own. Cameron Diaz is great as the blond bombshell, and Max the puppy nearly steals
- ["Blankman" is Uninspired](https://silverscreencapture.com/blankman/) - Mike Binder's Blankman (F) is a superhero spoof that just sits there like a bad chunk of Kryptonite. Damon Wayans, whose transition to the big screen from In Living Color has not quite soared, plays an inner-city superhero, and that conceit is intended to be funny in and of itself. This film has the power
- ["Ed Wood" a Triumphant Salute to B-Movies](https://silverscreencapture.com/ed-wood/) - Moviemaker Edward D. Wood, Jr. could have been the next Orson Welles. Both men hit their stride at an early age and possessed unswerving obsession for the films they created. There's just one thing Ed Wood lacked: talent. Wood, infamous for dreck such as Plan 9 From Outer Space is biographically redeemed in director Tim
- ["Love Affair" (1994) is a Lifeless Remake](https://silverscreencapture.com/love-affair/) - Glenn Gordon Caron's Love Affair (D-) is a remake of An Affair to Remember which inspired the much more interesting homage Sleepless in Seattle. Warren Beatty and Annette Bening are smarmy in the soft-lit central roles, and Katharine Hepburn makes a cameo to mumble something unnecessarily vulgar. By the time the lovers meet up at
- ["Quiz Show" is Gripping Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/quiz-show/) - Director Robert Redford's Quiz Show (A-) explores the scandal behind a rigged televised game show, paralleling some of the promises and disenchantment of America in the '60s. Ralph Fiennes, so chilling in Schindler's List, brilliantly plays the contestant at the center of the controversy. The film is timely as a fabricated Dateline segment prompted similar
- ["Fearless" is a Soaring Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/fearless/) - Director Peter Weir has a talent for dreamy out-of-body moments of passion ranging from wartime friendship and tragedy (Galipoli), primieval joy for the arts (Dead Poets Society) and the purest of love forbidden by tradition (Witness). Weir's compendium of human epiphanies has a new entry, Fearless (A-), a spiritual drama about the ways two different
- [Travel Like Movie Stars: Top 24 Must-Visit Hotels, Resorts for 2024](https://silverscreencapture.com/travel-like-movie-stars-top-24-must-visit-hotels-resorts-for-2024/) - Travel expert Michael Albanese of Element Lifestyle - Los Angeles and Atlanta - provides annual list of curated global travel destinations. 24 for 2024!
- [“Braveheart” Often Rousing](https://silverscreencapture.com/braveheart/) - Mel Gibson's sophomore directorial effort is a giant leap forward, a rousing 13th century Scottish epic about the life of real-life martyr and hero William Wallace, Braveheart (B). Gibson the actor does a credible job embodying the hero and rallying men to battle for sprawling battle sequences. The screenplay lets him down a bit, as
- [Reverse War Film: “Hacksaw Ridge” a Fascinating Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-movie-review-hacksaw-ridge/) - An epic true tale of faith has met its match in a filmmaker for whom fire and brimstone are merely a prelude, and the power and singularity of his vision on screen cannot be denied. Director Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge (B) is a tough mudder of an action movie, hearkening to the actor-turned-director's own roots
- [“Doctor Strange” a Thinking Person’s Hero](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-doctor-strange/) - Benedict Cumberbatch casts one helluva spell as an intellectual, cerebral superhero with the ability to shape-shift his surroundings in Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange (B), a mostly engaging entry into the Marvel multiverse. The title character is an arrogant surgeon who gets his comeuppance in a crushing car accident and subsequently turns to mystical arts in
- [Nolan’s “Inception” a Perfect Puzzle](https://silverscreencapture.com/inception/) - Christopher Nolan’s Inception (A) is a perfect puzzle of a movie, with Leonardo DiCaprio helping sell the notion of highjacking peoples’ dreams . The high-concept effects and superb supporting cast including Ellen Page and Tom Hardy helps make the multiple parallel timelines work seamlessly. It’s a dazzling and inventive display of derring-do by one of
- [“Shutter Island” Confounds Expectations](https://silverscreencapture.com/shutter-island/) - Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island (B+) is the master director making a popcorn movie, like he did with Cape Fear. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo go to an island asylum ostensibly to solve a crime, but they may soon find themselves prisoners of the mysterious place. This is great escapist entertainment with surprises at every corner.
- [“The Departed” is Supremely Entertaining](https://silverscreencapture.com/departed/) - It’s a bit ironic that one of the most original filmmakers of our time has made one of his very best films by following someone else’s formula. A remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (A) traces a young undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrating a South Boston crime syndicate led
- [“Wolf of Wall Street” a Twisted Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/wolf-of-wall-street/) - Equal parts extraordinary and exhausting, Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (B+) is a cynical cautionary tale wrapped in a fetching fantasia of decadent and grotesque true-life characters. Aside from the master director stunningly realizing his vision, Leonardo DiCaprio sinks his teeth into his role with grandeur. I don't think the actor has ever
- [“Wolf” (1994) a Big Hairy Misfire](https://silverscreencapture.com/wolf/) - Director Mike Nichols can't find the silver bullet for Wolf (F). Its attempt to be a comedy, a drama and an adventure makes the film a complete failure in at least three genres at once. After Man Trouble, this is a rough spell for Jack Nicholson, who phones it in as a modern-day werewolf opposite
- [“Speed” an Adrenaline Rush](https://silverscreencapture.com/speed/) - First-time director Jan de Bont scores with the summer action hit Speed (A). An elevator freefalling thirty floors is but a prelude to a speeding bus that can't slow down through Los Angeles' morning rush hour or else a bomb will detonate. Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock are appealing as the young leads, and Dennis
- [“Shallow Grave” a Crafty, Creative Caper](https://silverscreencapture.com/shallow-grave/) - Danny Boyle's wickedly witty thriller Shallow Grave (B+) features Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor as insular flatmates in search of a fourth, who turns out to have mysterious money and crime connections. Boyle is observant and twisty as his trio of antiheroes confronts some shades of gray that are murkier than ever surrounding
- [“True Romance” Can Be Messy](https://silverscreencapture.com/true-romance/) - Director Tony Scott's film of an early Quentin Tarantino script, True Romance (D+) is unfortunately a misguided, mean-spirited action film that raises issues about a violent world without any rational backing or compelling message. It's as if there's an irony on the screenplay page that just didn't translate to how Scott chose to direct it.
- [“Schindler's List” a Powerful, Unflinching Masterpiece](https://silverscreencapture.com/schindlers-list/) - Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (A) tells a true-life Holocaust-set story of a factory owner (Liam Neeson) who along with one of his trusted advisors (Ben Kingsley) is able to help save many Jews from certain death against incredible odds. Ralph Fiennes plays one of the most villainous characters put to screen as the film’s most
- [“The Queen” an Engrossing Character Study](https://silverscreencapture.com/queen-2006/) - Stephen Frears’ The Queen (A-) is about finding the proper time and place to say one’s peace. For Queen Elizabeth II, perfectly embodied by Helen Mirren, speaking out after the death of Princess Diana is especially difficult. The film details the negotiations between Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and the queen to help put public closure
- [“Shortbus” Creative and Sexually Daring](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-shortbus/) - Explicit and magical, John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus (A) is a sprawling ensemble about sexual release in modern New York and is one of the best films of 2006. Sook-Yin Lee and Paul Dawson are among the superb members of a cast in overlapping stories of lust, loneliness, longing and liberation. With dandy music by Yo
- [“Short Cuts” is Altman at His Most Altmanesque](https://silverscreencapture.com/short-cuts/) - Director Robert Altman's 1970's classic Nashville is often described as "24 characters searching for a movie." His Short Cuts (B) adds about ten more to the mix as it tells a panoramic story of interlocking characters adrift in modern-day Los Angeles. Lily Tomlin, Peter Gallagher, Jack Lemmon and Julianne Moore are among the standouts in
- [“The Piano” a Singular Act of Storytelling](https://silverscreencapture.com/piano/) - Jane Campion's The Piano (A+) is a finely tuned masterpiece of moviemaking, transporting the viewer to a rare place in the human heart where love is a classic medley passed down through generations. Filmed in muted, natural colors, this mid 19th century New Zealand set story centers around a mute but passionate main character played by Holly
- [Mean Streets of the Mind in “Age of Innocence”](https://silverscreencapture.com/age-innocence/) - Martin Scorsese turns his lens to the psychological turmoil behind the cultured, mannered society of Edith Wharton's bygone late 19th-century New York in The Age of Innocence (B+). Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer are standouts in this parlor game of longing, brilliantly edited and judiciously paced. It's as gorgeous as Marty's films are usually gritty.
- [“Cutthroat Island” an Average Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/cutthroat-island/) - Renny Harlin's cut-rate pirate adventure Cutthroat Island (C-) stars Geena Davis as a lackluster swashbuckler amidst fake-looking set-pieces. Co-starring Matthew Modine, this bawdy, gaudy film jumps head-first into epic stunts without warming up the viewers to its austere heroes.
- [“StarGate” is Subpar Sci-Fi](https://silverscreencapture.com/stargate/) - Sand. Lots of sand. That's the big takeaway from StarGate (D), a pricey science fiction epic about an intergalactic doorway to an alternate world of phony pyramids, an androgynous pharaoh and mumbo jumbo amidst dusty dunes. Writer/director Roland Emmerich gives James Spader, Kurt Russell and Jaye Davidson little to do in a story that quickly
- [“Pulp Fiction” is Tarantino in Full Command of Craft](https://silverscreencapture.com/pulp-fiction/) - One moment you're pulling back in horror. And the next instant you can't control your laughter. That's the thrilling sensation director Quentin Tarantino creates in his splashy piece of Pulp Fiction (A+), an audacious interweaving of three stories about a surprisingly vulgar and witty underclass on the scene of the modern American crimescape. It's complete
- [“Road to Wellville” a Curiosity](https://silverscreencapture.com/road-wellville/) - Alan Parker examines the foibles of the human body in the comic farce The Road to Wellville (C+), pitting Anthony Hopkins as a Willy Wonka of a 1907 health sanitarium against naifs Matthew Broderick and Bridget Fonda. This episodic film often provides a tonic to the funny-bone but fails to find a remedy and resonance
- [“Maze Runner” is Bottom-Drawer YA Adaptation](https://silverscreencapture.com/maze-runner/) - There's an intriguing story buried within the Lord of the Flies/Hunger Games/Prison Break mashup that is Wes Ball's The Maze Runner (C-), but boy is the execution a tedious zig zag tracing some well-trod lines we have seen many times before! An all-teen-boys village of the future requires runners to scope out a maze each
- [“White Squall” Pretty, Vacant](https://silverscreencapture.com/white-squall-2/) - Jeff Bridges and Scott Wolf headline a picturesque coming of age story in Ridley Scott's White Squall (C). Despite navigating the young cast through a series of physical and emotional adventures, the makers fail to generate much central interest or momentum. it ultimately kinda looks like a cologne ad.
- [“Scream” (1996) Rewrites the Rules of the Horror Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/scream/) - Wes Craven deconstructs scary with Scream (B+), a smart comedy/horror hybrid that features characters who are in the know about the rules of horror movies and still fall into their wicked traps. Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, David Arquette and Neve Campbell are strong in the ensemble, and Kevin Williamson's witty screenplay is truly the star. Craven
- [Dramatic “Drive My Car” Ponders Life and Loss](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-drive-my-car-2021/) - If the DeLorean is known for time travel and the Aston Martin a harbinger of glamorous espionage, this film’s cherry red Saab is now known as a vessel of truth. Ponderous, profound and poetic, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama Drive My Car (B) follows a stoic actor/director played by Hidetoshi Nishijima who grapples with grief in his
- [“Confirmation” (2016) a Potent Political Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-confirmation-2016/) - Early review from the Atlanta Film Festival - debuted on HBO Rick Famuyiwa's Confirmation (B-) is the sturdy true story of Anita Hill's revelation about sexual harassment during the judiciary committee's hearings about Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas. Although Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce are note-perfect as the real-life characters, the film doesn't
- [“Eye in the Sky” is Thrilling](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-eye-in-the-sky-2016/) - Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky (A-) is a spectacular meditation on the costs of wars waged with drone spies and unmanned planes that can drop missiles with perfect precision and why the human element is still so powerful in waging a fair battle. There is a lot of waiting game and bureaucratic bickering that
- [“Everybody Wants Some!!” Is Great Ensemble Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/everybody-wants-some/) - The "some" of all things that Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! (A) purports all people desire is becoming part of a loving and supportive community. Not really a spoiler if you admire this writer/director like I do! For the Texas student athletes hazing each other in the random days before university classes start, you'd never
- [“Midnight Special” is Well Told](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-midnight-special-2016/) - Told with sincerity and cerebral grace, Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special (B+) upends many conventions of the sci-fi and supernatural genres to deliver a memorable tale. Michael Shannon is highly effective as the father of an otherworldly child (Jaeden Lieberher) and along with a buddy nicely played by Joel Edgerton is secretly transporting the precious kid
- [“Before Midnight” Bittersweet](https://silverscreencapture.com/midnight/) - Richard Linklater's Before Midnight (B) tells an austere, autumnal next chronicle in the romantic saga of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's Jesse and Celine. This time it's not all fun and games and wit and wordplay as we witness scenes from a marriage that is real and raw and may not still have much of
- [2013 “Much Ado About Nothing” Amusing](https://silverscreencapture.com/much-ado-nothing-2013/) - Despite being a wizard of witty wordplay, Director Joss Whedon belabors The Bard in his black and white limited release Much Ado About Nothing (B-). It's artfully shot and decently acted by an ensemble of Joss' journeyman actors, and the film is often frothy and fun. It's a neat conceit that it's filmed in and
- [“Pacific Rim” Gets Better as it Goes Along](https://silverscreencapture.com/pacific-rim/) - Gueillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim starts out as an A, drifts into a C and ultimately becomes a better-than-average B movie. The geek-tastic premise: to fight gigantic sea monsters, the nations of earth have created huge robots co-piloted by warriors who mind-meld to spar with the modern-day godzillas. Charlie Hunnam is earnestly appealing and the
- [“Starship Troopers” Campy, Exciting](https://silverscreencapture.com/starship-troopers/) - Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi outer space creature feature send-up Starship Troopers (B) is both an exciting tale of fresh-faced young people fighting galactic aliens and a parody of such films. It works best if you simply succumb to the silliness. There are no acting standouts in this one, just wall-to-wall action. It's well-filmed pulp and exactly
- [“Fifth Element” a Tedious Space Opera](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-fifth-element/) - This is the way the universe ends. It’s a far-fetched frontier where the tenets of good filmmaking hyperwarp into an otherworld of haywire folly. Transcending earth, wind, fire, ice and more, Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (F) exists in a sphere of stupidity reserved only for the rarest of films. Bruce Willis and Gary Oldman
- [“Hundred-Foot Journey” is Kinda Bland](https://silverscreencapture.com/hundred-foot-journey/) - It's too bad the Michelin ratings system for restaurants doesn't apply to movies, because Lasse Hallström's The Hundred-Foot Journey (C+) is hovering between two and three stars. Although sentimental and sure to please folks in search of a formulaic adult crowd pleaser amidst summer blockbusters, it's missing the ingredients of something truly scrumptious as the
- [With This Cast, “This Is Where I Leave You” Should Be Better](https://silverscreencapture.com/leave/) - Somewhere on the sliding scale far down from Terms of Endearment and even a few notches down from Beautiful Girls is Shawn Levy's you-can-go-home-again comedy-drama This Is Where I Leave You (C); and despite often amusing and sometimes touching ensemble work, it doesn't necessarily add up to a cogent success or complete payoff. Faring best
- [“Skeleton Twins” Offers Strong Dramedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/skeleton-twins/) - Craig Johnson's dark comedy-drama The Skeleton Twins (B) is like a Hallmark Card series launched by The Addams Family: a veritable arsenal of pick-me-up announcements from occasions such as suicide attempts, abandonment, abuse and infidelity. The fact that this tragic terrain is so skillfully navigated by typically comic actors Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader is
- [“Trainwreck” a Funny Showcase for Schumer](https://silverscreencapture.com/trainwreck/) - Writer and lead comic actress Amy Schumer couldn't ask for a better feature film maiden voyage vehicle than Judd Apatow's Trainwreck (B), a screwball character study shrouded in rom com clothing. Schumer's central character is a boozy and sexually liberated magazine writer who meets her match in a well-grounded sports physician, warmly and effectively played
- [“Knocked Up” Blends the Profane and the Poignant](https://silverscreencapture.com/knocked/) - Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up (B+) pairs schlubby slacker Seth Rogen and career-minded Katherine Heigl as participants in a one-night stand who are now parents-to-be. It’s a modern-day comedy about reverse courtship as the parallel notion of falling in love while expecting a baby brings out the best and worst of all involved. Apatow’s writing style
- [“Sweeney Todd” a Stunningly Good Horror Musical](https://silverscreencapture.com/sweeney-todd/) - Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd (A-) is a monster musical. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, neither renowned for their singing voices, sink their teeth into Sondheim’s gruesome tale of a demon barber bent on revenge against humanity that wronged him and his skirted accomplice who makes meat pies out of the corpses from his haircuttery.
- [“Nightmare Before Christmas” a Nifty Holiday Treat](https://silverscreencapture.com/tim-burtons-nightmare-christmas/) - Director Henry Selick does the heavy lifting in a Claymation-inspired motion capture musical holiday extravaganza Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (B) based on the Beetlejuice/Edward Scissorhands wunderkind's whimsical mash-up of a night when a cast of ghouls, goblins and Jack Skellington take over Christmas duties. Buoyed by Oingo Boingo front man Danny Elfman's playfully
- [“Fatal Instinct” Earns its “F”](https://silverscreencapture.com/fatal-instinct/) - If Basic Instinct and Body of Evidence weren't laughably bad on their own terms, Carl Reiner's Fatal Instinct (F) attempts to spoof this mini-genre and finds itself going commando in the laughs department. The presence of Sean Young, one of my least favorite performers, helps further sink an enterprise that seems to have been conceived
- [“World War Z” is Ho-Hum Zombie Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/world-war-z/) - In Mark Forster's World War Z (C-), a ham-fisted and improbable zombie adventure, Brad Pitt turns in a vacant-eyed performance to match the sleepwalking screenplay. There are three nice action sequences, one of which will probably not screen on an airplane any time soon.
- [“This Is The End” is Raunchy, Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/this-is-the-end/) - Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's This Is The End (B) is a super-raunchy, self-aware, nihilistic comic adventure with zeitgeist to spare. Playing winking versions of themselves, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and James Franco are among the most hilarious of a raucous ensemble as the apocalypse comes to the Hollywood Hills. Although it overstays its welcome,
- [“X-Men: Apocalypse” a Middling Entry](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-x-men-apocalypse/) - See! Gee! Aye! There's lots of razzle dazzle effects on view in Bryan Singer's pre-fab spectacle X-Men: Apocalypse (C), but there's very little of interest in terms of character or story. In what seems to be an endless multiyear slog of filmed origins, this installment introduces us to the beginnings of Cyclops and Storm. What
- [Animated “WALL-E” Peaks Early](https://silverscreencapture.com/wall-e/) - Pixar sci-fi film includes lyrical first half and less amazing second act.
- [“Finding Dory” a Sometimes Seaworthy Follow-Up](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-finding-dory/) - Andrew Stanton's animated aquatic sequel Finding Dory (B-) succeeds as a message movie about inclusion of characters with disabilities - showcasing a fish with short-term memory loss overcoming the odds - but stumbles in terms of its only mildly engaging protagonist, its flagging adherence to its own intrinsic logic and the lack of originality of
- [“De Palma” Highlights Best Work of Suspense Filmmaker](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-de-palma/) - Cinephiles will delight in Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow's documentary De Palma (A-) which is essentially a two-hour retrospective of director/screenwriter Brian De Palma's film oeuvre told by the filmmaker himself. The auteur is lively and perceptive about his own works, with standouts and gorgeous sequences from all of his films including Sisters, Carrie, Dressed
- [“The Lobster” is Absorbing Fantasy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-lobster/) - An absurdist sci-fi fantasy, a cunning comedy and a metaphorical meditation on the oddities of being a single person on the planet earth, Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster (B) is a beguiling think piece that both advances the contention that Colin Farrell has become one of film's great comic actors (a great companion piece to In
- [“Gattaca” a Brilliant Look at What Makes Us Human](https://silverscreencapture.com/gattaca/) - Andrew Niccol's Gattaca (A-) is a cautionary sci-fi thriller about two men played by Ethan Hawke and Jude Law in a future world in which one's aspirations are dictated by genetic makeup. Hawke's character has defects that will hold him back from his dream of space travel, and ultimately he devises a way to escape
- [“Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” a Frivolous Send-Up](https://silverscreencapture.com/austin-powers-international-man-mystery/) - Every groovy costume, character and quirk in director Jay Roach’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (C+) suggests the film will be a smashing fun-fest. But regardless of the kitschy freeze frames, the spiraling flowers and the lace-lined crushed velvet suits, the film often strikes an empty pose. Mike Myers plays the zany leading character
- [“Volcano” Provides Little to Lava](https://silverscreencapture.com/volcano-2/) - No matter how many effects director Mick Jackson pours on in Volcano (D), he can’t disguise the fact that there aren’t any characters to care about as disaster looms. These vapid characters include those played by Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche. The lava can’t come quickly enough.
- [“Dante's Peak” a Decent Volcano Flick](https://silverscreencapture.com/dantes-peak/) - In the battle of ‘90’s volcano movies, Roger Donaldson, a craftsmanlike director who doesn’t veer too much from centrist entertainment, has made the best of the batch: Dante’s Peak (B). Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton provide enough human interest that when the blast of excitement happens, you still have some skin in the game about
- ["Hamilton" Revolutionizes Broadway Experience for Screen](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hamilton-2020/) - This filmed chronicle of Broadway’s revolutionary political pageant depicts a new American nation engaged in a battle for its soul.
- [2012 “Avengers” Assembles Hilarious Superheroes](https://silverscreencapture.com/avengers/) - Marvel's The Avengers (A) is a remarkable action spectacle with superb ensemble acting (especially Rovert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man and Mark Ruffalo as Hulk), wry humor and some of the best 3D IMAX effects ever realized on screen. After Cabin in the Woods, writer/director Joss Whedon is having quite a creative year.
- [“Cabin in the Woods” (2012) an Inventive Horror Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/cabin-woods/) - Director Drew Goddard's film of a story he co-wrote with Joss Whedon, Cabin in the Woods (B+) is a funny and subversive deconstruction of the horror genre with shocks and surprises to delight terror flick enthusiasts and virgins alike. From the opening frames, it's clear this is a bit of an upstairs/downstairs tale with parallel
- [“Natural Born Killers” Captures Tabloid Culture](https://silverscreencapture.com/natural-born-killers/) - Oliver Stone's “Natural Born Killers”confronts our society of spectacle through a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde named Mickey and Mallory Knox.
- [Disney’s Animated “Lion King” One of 1994’s Best Films](https://silverscreencapture.com/lion-king/) - Disney’s “The Lion King” is a stirring animal version of Hamlet featuring some heavy themes about a "circle of life" with betrayal, death and ascension.
- [Animated Disney “Hunchback of Notre Dame” Soars](https://silverscreencapture.com/hunchback-notre-dame-1996/) - Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (A-) is Disney’s dark quasi-opera about a 15th century French deformed bell-ringer who dreams of leaving the cathedral where he is secluded for a moment “out there” in the real world. This adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic features spectacular songs by Alan Menken and Stephen
- [Animated “Mulan” is Strong Disney Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mulan-1998/) - Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook’s animated film Mulan (B+) takes place in China during the Han dynasty where Fa Mulan (a marvelous Ming-Na Wen), daughter of aged warrior Fa Zhou, impersonates a man and takes her dad’s conscription slot to fend off a Hun invasion. Filled with rich animation, exciting set pieces, lively songs, tense drama and
- [2013 “Lone Ranger” a Misfire](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-lone-ranger/) - Not quite the great time robbery it is purported to be, Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger (C-) is nonetheless an endless parade of tonal shifts and missed opportunities bookended by two of the most thrilling locomotive chases to be recently committed to screen. The biggest problem is a bland, underwritten and miscast hero, and Armie
- [“Frozen” Works in Spurts](https://silverscreencapture.com/frozen/) - Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee's animated Disney movie Frozen (B+) mixes up the princess formula with some unexpected twists and largely enchanting results. This Scandanavian storybook adventure is filled with fresh ice effects, compelling heroines, charming sidekicks and winning songs by Kristen and Bobby Lopez. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel's power ballads and a snowman's
- [“Escape From Tomorrow” Renegade Movie Filmed in Disney Park](https://silverscreencapture.com/escape-tomorrow/) - Quite possibly the ultimate guerrilla movie (filmed undetected inside Disney parks), Randy Moore's Escape From Tomorrow (B-) is disturbing tragicomedy about a recently unemployed man (Roy Abramsohn) going slowly insane while accompanying his family to the happiest place on earth. Cinema scholars will marvel over how this film even exists; others will appreciate the surreal
- [“Saving Mr. Banks” is Decent Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/saving-mr-banks/) - Despite buzzy awards season mentions, John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr. Banks (C+) is a tepid, often dull melodrama about the clashes behind the making of Mary Poppins that would be more at home on Lifetime than the silver screen. Tom Hanks in cheerful mode as Disney and Emma Thompson as frigid writer Travers make the
- [“Big Hero 6” Often Amusing](https://silverscreencapture.com/big-hero-6/) - Don Hall and Chris Williams' animated adventure Big Hero 6 (B-) is a triumph of style over substance, with an amazing hybrid metropolis imagined as a cross between San Francisco and Tokyo and a Marvel comic inspired origin story about a sextet of superheroes. There's an Iron Giant-style central relationship between boy and gentle robot
- [“Tomorrowland” a Dubious Destination](https://silverscreencapture.com/tomorrowland/) - Disney's history of imagination is unparalleled, but the studio's shaky track record of sci-fi is paved with the likes of The Black Hole, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and Tron Legacy. So the squandered opportunity for redemption is mighty in Brad Bird's Tomorrowland (C-), an ambitious film that is full of ideas but misses the
- [“Inside Out” Heightens Emotions](https://silverscreencapture.com/inside-out-2015/) - Pete Docter's animated Inside Out (B) is like a really inventive improv skit that wears out its welcome. It plumbs the goings-on inside a tween's mind through the antics and skulduggery of five personified interior monologues. Color coded to match the memory marbles that the protagonist is losing, these sensory sprites (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust
- [“Zootopia” Fun Animated Noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-zootopia/) - Click Here for a Video Message about the Film From Stephen, Catie & Riley Brown Expanding on a grand tradition of animated animal allegories ranging from Animal Farm to Watership Down to Fritz the Cat, Byron Howard and Rich Moore's Zootopia (B) depicts the unlikely collaboration between a rabbit police officer voiced by Gennifer Goodwin
- [Live-Action "Dumbo" Doesn't Connect](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-dumbo-2019/) - Nearly eight decades after the animated original, Tim Burton’s live action Dumbo (C+) has flown onto the scene again, and the pachyderm protagonist remains a charming silent star, no matter what’s going on in the peanut galleries around him. Disney executives appear to operate under the premise that, unlike elephants, moviegoers sometimes forget, so there’s
- [“Flirting With Disaster” Uproariously Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/flirting-disaster/) - Ben Stiller headlines an all-star cast in the hilarious domestic comedy of errors, David O. Russell’s Flirting with Disaster (A-). His adopted character’s cross-country search for his biological parents leads him hilariously into the arms of drug-dealers, FBI agents and a merry band of fellow travelers played by comic legends ranging from Lily Tomlin to
- [Scorsese’s “Silence” a Tough Watch](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-silence-2016/) - You've got to hand it to director Martin Scorsese: When he's obsessed with a subject, he pursues it with vice grip precision. He has evidently had the story of two 17th century Christian missionaries facing the ultimate test of faith in Japan (when their religion was outlawed and their presence forbidden) in his mind for
- [Documentary “Breaking Through” Showcases Barrier-Breaking Politicians](https://silverscreencapture.com/breaking-through/) - Ripped from the headlines about gay politicians breaking down borders in astonishing ways across America, Cindy L. Abel’s Breaking Through (A) is groundbreaking in both its subject matter and its remarkably moving way of telling its subjects’ back stories. Masterful in its mix of immersive, intimate interviews and powerful motion graphics, this stirring sensory experience
- [“Godzilla” (2014) Gets It Right](https://silverscreencapture.com/godzilla-2014/) - Gareth Edwards' vision for a new Godzilla (B+) is a you-are-there disaster epic with undertones of family drama and a down-to-earth reality undergirding its myth and mayhem. There's no camp or comedy in this mighty, muscular take on the classic monster legend. Gorgeous retro news reels and a globetrotting travelogue of sequences help plot out
- [David Cronenberg’s 1996 “Crash” Kinky, Bizarre](https://silverscreencapture.com/crash-1996/) - Director David Cronenberg uses car crashes as a stand-in for unusual fetishes, but his focus on this type of auto-erotica seems like more a delirious dissertation than an actual real thing in the erotic thriller Crash (C-). Nonetheless, James Spader, Holly Hunter and a game ensemble sell the heck out of the high-concept. But there’s
- [2004’s “Crash” is Dramatic Parable on Racial Tension in America](https://silverscreencapture.com/crash-2004/) - Writer/director Paul Haggis’ Crash (A-) tells its tales of race and social tension and relationships in modern-day Los Angeles through the multi-character interlocking storyline format that Robert Altman made so famous. Don Cheadle, Michael Peña , Sandra Bullock, Thandie Newton and Matt Dillon are among the standouts in this passion project that turns a mirror
- [“Before Sunset” Reunites Linklater’s Talky Lovers](https://silverscreencapture.com/sunset/) - Richard Linklater's Before Sunset (B) reunites the spontaneous lovers played so memorably by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise. This time the conceit is that the roving conversation (this time in Paris) plays out in real time. It's a bit more experiment than narrative continuation and only occasionally nails universal truths as before.
- [David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” is Powerful](https://silverscreencapture.com/history-violence/) - David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, based on a graphic novel of the same name, is a powerful thriller in which Viggo Mortensen plays a low-key small town merchant who fends off some criminal types that come into town and outs himself as having a bit of a secret past. Mortenssen is dynamite, and Maria
- [David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” is Alluring](https://silverscreencapture.com/mapstothestars/) - Films such as Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, Altman's The Player and Lynch's Mulholland Drive are some of the most definitive movies in the “gritty inside Hollywood” canon; and really, the always interesting David Cronenberg’s latest work, Maps to the Stars (B-), doesn’t even belong in the same discussion with them. But as a bleak portrait of
- [“Dead Man Walking” a Gripping Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/dead-man-walking/) - Director Tim Robbins makes the definitive film about the death penalty and shows all angles of a controversial topic through an intimate story about a nun (Susan Sarandon) and a death-row murderer (Sean Penn) in Dead Man Walking (A). Both actors give one of the best performances of their careers, and Robbins deftly directs their
- [“La La Land” an Enchanting Movie Musical](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-la-la-land/) - Damien Chazelle's kaleidoscopic modern musical La La Land (B+) explores the eternal question of whether you should put your art or your love life first. Or maybe you can have both! OK, it's not exactly a universal question - and possibly a first-world problem at that - but in the hands of starry-eyed and fleet-footed
- [“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” is a Weak Start](https://silverscreencapture.com/harry-potter-sorcerers-stone/) - Despite access to a treasure box of imagination in the wildly popular source material, Chris Columbus' tale of a boy wizard going to school, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (C+), rarely takes flight. Filmed in dim halls and corridors and employing too frequent a use of clumsy CGI effects, the film maps out an
- [“Goosebumps” a CGI-Laden Mess](https://silverscreencapture.com/goosebumps/) - Rob Letterman's Goosebumps (D) joins this summer's Pixels in a series of kids' films that value effects over imagination. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, reclusive author of the titular young adult book series. With a vaguely academic accent and face frozen on "concerned," Black provides a performance only slightly more irritating than Slappy the vaudeville
- [Game Over for “Pixels”](https://silverscreencapture.com/pixels/) - There's lots of inspired stuff in a movie about a 1982 time capsule that prompts modern-day extraterrestrials to co-opt nostalgic video game iconography to attack the planet, but director Chris Columbus and an Adam Sandler-led comedic ensemble drain Pixels (D-) of any sense of wit or charm. The filmmakers barely summon hand-eye coordination in mishandling
- [“Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Ups the Fantasy Ante](https://silverscreencapture.com/lord-rings-two-towers/) - Even richer in its themes about the importance of telling stories, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (A) centers on the friendship between the Hobbit characters played by Elijah Wood and Sean Astin while continuing to build a mosaic of characters preparing for a battle for the ages. The adventure in this
- [“10 Cloverfield Lane” Fascinates](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-10-cloverfield-lane/) - It's not completely clear what the ultimate Cloverfield continuity encompasses, but producer J.J. Abrams' answer to an anthology series a la Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories or Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story started with a 2008 found footage Godzilla thriller and in 2016 features a completely different set of characters and a storyline which may or
- [“JeruZalem” is a Holy Terror](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-jeruzalem/) - Yoav and Doran Paz's JeruZalem (B) is a welcome addition to the found-footage horror genre, with a compelling female-centric viewpoint, a mysterious setting and a surprising portal for storytelling. Two traveling American females winningly played by Yael Grobglas and Danielle Hadelyn meet a young anthropologist, the charming Yon Tumarkin, on a plane to Israel and
- [Ryan Coogler’s “Creed” Successfully Steps Out of Iconic Boxer’s Shadow](https://silverscreencapture.com/creed/) - Brute force awakens as writer/director Ryan Coogler successfully reboots the Rocky franchise with the effective sports drama Creed (B+). Michael B. Jordan shines as the title character Adonis "Donny" Creed, working out issues of identity and legacy to fulfill the destiny of his late father Apollo. Salvaged from a declining series of film sequels and
- [“Last Five Years” Makes a Magnificent Musical Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/last-five-years/) - In music and in life, synching up is half the battle. For the two lovers orbiting and intersecting with each other through Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of the Jason Robert Brown musical The Last Five Years (A), the language of tough love is song, and the deck is shuffled with her story told backward and his
- [Christopher Nolan Imprints Short-Term Memory Thriller “Memento” with Panic and Panache](https://silverscreencapture.com/memento/) - Telling its story backwards, Christopher Nolan’s Memento (A) may be the only logical way to get to the central mystery of a man with short-term memory who knows his wife is dead but doesn’t know who killed her. As played by Guy Pearce, the lead character is a fascinating enigma. Nolan shows his penchant for
- [“X-Men” is an Epic of Marvelous Superhero Misfits](https://silverscreencapture.com/x-men/) - Bryan Singer's X-Men (B+) is an epic superhero film and apt allegory for outsiders as so-called "mutants" find their way to a special academy for people with special powers and prepare for a clash between good and evil. Patrick Stewart plays the protagonist professor versus Ian McKellan as the sinister mutant with the ability to
- [“Monuments Men” is a Misfire](https://silverscreencapture.com/monuments-men/) - For a film ostensibly about the preservation of art, it's a shame that The Monuments Men (D+) is about as compelling as watching paint dry. George Clooney has oceans of resources to pull off an ensemble; and as star, co-writer and director, he tackles the tale of an elite force in WWII responsible for saving
- [“Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow” is Solid Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/live-die-repeat/) - A confusing title, the presence of the recently hit-or-miss Tom Cruise and a dark-looking paramilitary milieu are disguising what is actually one of the most clever films of the year, Doug Liman's Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow (B). After a bit of a slow start in introducing a future in which warfare is being
- [“Fault in Our Stars” Wins on Chemistry](https://silverscreencapture.com/fault-stars/) - Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are extraordinarily charming leads in an Josh Boone's unconventional contemporary love story The Fault in Our Stars (A). Buoyed by crackling conversations about fate, mortality and making the most of every moment, this young adult drama defies genre limits and expectations to present well rounded characters of epic scope and
- [“Case Against 8” Chronicles Landmark Legal Fight](https://silverscreencapture.com/case-8/) - Ryan White and Ben Cotner's The Case Against 8 (A) tells a tale documented over multiple years that builds into greater significance in each and every brilliantly edited sequence leading up to its glorious and life-affirming third act. Buoyed by the unconventional legal team duo of Ted Olson, lead counsel for the Republicans in the
- [“An Act of Love” a Soul Stirring Documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-an-act-of-love-2015/) - Scott Sheppard's documentary An Act of Love (B) is the powerful account of United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer who challenged convention by officiating his son's same-sex marriage ceremony despite church doctrine. Sheppard delves deep into the heart of an American family and far into the bureaucracy - where strictures further complicate scriptures - that hinders
- [“Other People” Surprising and Sentimental](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-other-people-2016/) - Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon might not be anyone's first casting choices as a gay comedy writer and his dying mom, respectively; but boy are they a moving and marvelous duo in Chris Kelly's alternately hilarious and heartbreaking melodrama Other People (B+). Plemons, masterfully playing a sad sack hybrid of Matt Damon and Philip Seymour
- [“Deepwater Horizon” Re-Creates Oil Rig Disaster](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-deepwater-horizon/) - Soon after their latest collaboration Lone Survivor, director Peter Berg and Star Mark Wahlberg team up for another real-life story, the depiction of the "well from hell" known as the BP oil rig disaster: Deepwater Horizon (B+). The film draws viewers in to meet a collection of sympathetic characters including protagonist Wahlberg, Kate Hudson as his
- [“Lone Survivor” Re-Creates Military Raid](https://silverscreencapture.com/lone-survivor/) - Some great counterprogramming for those who like matinee idol Mark Wahlberg in a role that doesn't involve mind-numbing transforming robots is Lone Survivor (B), the true-life tale of a military raid in Afghanistan that takes some surprising, perilous and deadly turns for a group of heroes. Director Peter Berg is basically the anti-Michael Bay, serving
- [“Normal Heart” a Wake-Up Call to Activism](https://silverscreencapture.com/normal-heart/) - Director Ryan Murphy's film adaptation of Larry Kramer's AIDS activism ensemble drama The Normal Heart (B) tells a stirring chronicle of life in New York in the '80s among gay men with the dreaded new virus sneaking up on the population with a slow burn akin to the zombies of modern myths. Mark Ruffalo has
- [“Begin Again” Shows More Bonding Among Music Makers](https://silverscreencapture.com/begin/) - Lightning does not strike twice for Once writer/director John Carney as he brings his wounded souls bonding over music motifs Stateside in the NYC-set drama Begin Again (B-). Mark Ruffalo is a down-on-his-luck producer and Keira Knightley the unlucky-in-love songstress who catches his attention. Together the maven and his muse create an album on the
- [“Foxcatcher” an Absorbing True Crime Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/foxcatcher/) - Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher (B+) is an absorbing true crime drama featuring spot-on performances by Steve Carell as a paranoid multimillionaire obsessed with being an Olympic sports coach and Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo as gold medalist wrestlers grappling with the limits of loyalty to their wealthy patron. A commentary on how power, wealth and influence
- [“Into the Woods” Skims Surface of Sondheim](https://silverscreencapture.com/woods/) - Rob Marshall's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical Into the Woods (B) is quite faithful in spirit to its fractured fairy tale source material, but the director fails to truly plumb the emotional resonance of its "beyond happily ever after" themes. The film involves a quest that brings together intersecting storybook characters;
- [Movie Musical “Nine” Fails to Shine](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-nine-2009/) - Rob Marshall's Fellini and Broadway-inspired Nine (C-), despite gorgeous costumes and cinematography, is as dramatically inert and unengaging a movie as one could imagine. Daniel Day-Lewis gives perhaps the only ho-hum performance in his catalogue. Kate Hudson's scenes are fun (first time since Almost Famous), and the “curtain call" style ending reinforces the notion of
- [Disney’s Live-Action “Jungle Book” Dramatically Inert](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-jungle-book-2016/) - Despite clear technical craft in creating simulated forests and talking (sometimes singing) animals, Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book (C) is dramatically inert. Swinging wildly in tone and staking the weight of its storyline on a pint-sized protagonist of limited range, the film falls flat in moving emotions while it swirls episodically through remake facsimiles of
- [“Lazy Eye” Casts Gaze on Gay Love](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-lazy-eye/) - Tim Kirkman's Lazy Eye (B) advances one of my favorite genres of film: the talky, plaintiff romance. This two-decades later Before Sunrise effect seems to be casting its spell into every corridor, from the early days of Barack and Michelle (the recommended Southside with You) to gay-themed stories of young love (Theo & Hugo). In
- [Hanks is Solid as “Sully” in Eastwood-Helmed Biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-sully/) - For those yearning for a solid Hollywood film with something to say, "brace for impact!" Director Clint Eastwood's solid biopic Sully (A-) turns convention on its head with an interior examination of an American hero who followed his instincts and famously saved 155 people with a famed plane landing on the icy Hudson River and
- [Eastwood-Directed “American Sniper” Hits its Marks](https://silverscreencapture.com/american-sniper/) - No one showcases moral ambiguity better than Clint Eastwood, so it's no surprise that his military biopic American Sniper (A-) depicts sharp-shooter Chris Kyle in all his heroic glory punctuated with pangs of crisis of conscience. Told in four Iraq tours of duty with domestic dissonance in between, the film is most effective at spotlighting
- [“Million Dollar Baby” Stunning Showcase for Swank, Eastwood and Freeman](https://silverscreencapture.com/million-dollar-baby-2004/) - As director and the film’s leading man, Clint Eastwood fills the sports drama Million Dollar Baby (A) with a vital sense of surrogate family. His boxing coach protagonist along with his business partner (Morgan Freeman) take on a female trainee (Hilary Swank) to help her realize her dream of becoming a professional. As hopes are
- [“Million Dollar Arm” Nice Showcase for Hamm](https://silverscreencapture.com/million-dollar-arm/) - Director Craig Gillespie's true sports story Million Dollar Arm (B-), isn't likely to please viewers eager to see the thrills of athleticism on the screen (heck, even Stallone's arm wrestling movie racks up more credibility on that scoreboard); but after a lethargic start, this formulaic film finds its footing as a surrogate family drama and
- [Show Me the Emotion! “Jerry Maguire” is a Knockout](https://silverscreencapture.com/jerry-maguire/) - The man who played America’s top gun, a cocky race car driver, an acrobatic bartender, a brooding vampire and a covert operator is now on the sidelines as Tom Cruise plays the agent behind the sports superstars. Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire (A) is about a man who comes down to earth and discovers what truly
- [Coen Brothers Craft Mighty “No Country For Old Men”](https://silverscreencapture.com/country-old-men/) - Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men (A-) is a cat and mouse caper told by amazing artisans. When Josh Brolin’s character finds a satchel of money, he thinks he’s hit the mother load, until he finds that there’s a tracking mechanism, and the tracking is being done by super-scary hitman Javier Bardem.
- [“Hell or High Water” a Nifty Neo-Western](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hell-or-high-water-2016/) - David Mackenzie crafts his neo-Western Hell or High Water (A) with such methodical pace that he disguises how urgent a work it is for modern times. Yes, on the surface it's a heist thriller about sworn "Comanches," or enemies: a pair of bank robbers versus a duo of rangers facing off on stark Texas terrain.
- [“Pete's Dragon” Remake Misguided](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-petes-dragon-2016/) - Although a perfectly acceptable way to kill time with your kids and an occasionally sweet tale, David Lowery's Pete's Dragon remake (C-) adds very little to the Disney canon or to movies about kids and their is-he-or-isn't-he-real fantasy friends. Shucking the musical sequences and cornball whimsy and melodrama of the 1977 original (not to mention
- [Hard Critical Knocks for 2014 “Annie”](https://silverscreencapture.com/annie-2014/) - When film industry legend John Huston made the durable 1982 adaptation of the Broadway musical Annie, he was accused of making a bit too literal and lumbering an entertainment, but fans should likely accept Huston's creation or Rob Marshall's 1999 TV re-do as an authoritative version. Will Gluck's 2014 remake of Annie (C-) starring Quvenzhané
- [“Contact” Finds Strong Place in the Universe](https://silverscreencapture.com/contact/) - Robert Zemeckis’s Contact (A) succeeds on the power of its leads’ Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey’s central debate of science and faith as they explore the notion of finding life outside earth in the universe. The film’s powerful performances and effects are used at the mercy of its central questions and get a nice payoff
- [“Men in Black” is Style Over Substance](https://silverscreencapture.com/men-black/) - Barry Levinson’s Men in Black (C) is a warmed-over, less-funny Ghostbusters, as two clean-up artists (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) rid NYC streets of pesky aliens. Smith has some witty lines, and there’s a cute dog. Not much more to offer!
- [Female-Centric “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call” Often Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/ghostbusters-2016/) - Despite being loosely based on a tale told better more than three decades ago, Paul Feig's Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (B-) doesn't necessarily lack for ideas. In fact, this all-female makeover of the let's-capture-ghosts-run-amok-in-Manhattan story is a whirling dervish of special effects and fun gadgetry evoking a mash-up of a haunted Disney dark ride, Q's
- [“Star Trek Beyond” Stumbles](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-star-trek-beyond/) - Few traces of classic wit or intellect surface as the crew of the Starship Enterprise weathers the swarm of a bio-weapon hive on a remote planet in the lukewarm third entry of a rebooted franchise in Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond (C). Character highlights include some bonding between frenemies Spock and Bones (a solid Zachary
- [“Star Trek Into Darkness” Not as Good as Predecessor](https://silverscreencapture.com/star-trek-darkness/) - J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness (B-) missed its mark in building upon the high standard set by its predecessor. Still, it starts off very exciting and has very nice stunts and effects along the way. Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t get much to do in a throwaway role, but Chris Pine shines once again in the
- [“Star Trek” 2009 Reboot is a Pleasurable Enterprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/star-trek-2009/) - J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (A-) is a spectacular reboot of the classic franchise with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto stepping in nicely as Kirk and Spock, respectively. We step back to Starfleet Academy and origin stories and now have a parallel path wormhole device so that new installments can exist in their own universe. On
- [“District 9” Effectively Blends Sci-Fi and Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/district-9/) - Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (B+) is an amazing hybrid science fiction action film and part dramatic mockumentary that chronicles the ghettoization of alien life forms in Johannesburg. Sharlto Copley holds together most of the scenes with human interactions, spliced with news footage and a series of interviews as illegal experiments are exposed and as a
- [Found Footage Film “Cloverfield” Frustrating](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-cloverfield-2008/) - Matt Reeves' Cloverfield (C) is a mash-up of found footage horror movie and a Godzilla action film, but the you-are-there format fails to impress, and the lizard fails to scare. It just feels a little tedious and cheap and is better remembered for its pre-release hype and buzz campaign. A game cast including Lizzy Caplan
- [“City of Gold” Traces Culinary Treasures](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-city-of-gold-2016/) - Variety is the spice of life in a misunderstood modern metropolis for the deep-thinking but soft-spoken subject of a new documentary. Director Laura Gabbert's City of Gold (B-) traces the impact and resonance of Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles food critic Jonathan Gold as he illuminates the cultural underbelly of the city by way of its
- [“Life Itself” is Moving Tribute to My Movie Critic Idol](https://silverscreencapture.com/life/) - Steve James' documentary about the life and times of populist film critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself (A), is a fascinating glimpse at an improbable hero who shape shifts from newspaperman to TV personality to blogger, all the while espousing a singular passion for cinema and for living. The filmmakers showcase the ailing journalist in his
- [“Magic in the Moonlight” is Minor in the Allen Canon](https://silverscreencapture.com/magic-moonlight/) - Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight (C-) is a very undernourished romantic comedy about a pompous magician rooted in realism (Colin Firth) endeavoring to out a skilled spiritual medium (Emma Stone) as a fraud while slowly surrendering to her charms. The film feels like a rushed first draft and a trifle of a notion with
- [“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” Another Late-Career Woody Allen Hit](https://silverscreencapture.com/vicky-cristina-barcelona/) - Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona (B+) is the latest in the writer/director’s European travelogue in which a Spaniard (Javier Bardem) proposes a three-way to two lovely travelers (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson), and then they all encounter his former wife (Penélope Cruz). Alternately ambiguous and enchanting, the film is full of comedy and rich characters,
- [Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” a Loving Tribute to Artists](https://silverscreencapture.com/midnight-paris/) - Woody Allen hits a late-career spark of comedic bliss with the supernatural romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (B) featuring Owen Wilson as a man who steps back in time to turn of the century France where he encounters a famous collection of artists, authors and celebrities. It's essentially Bill & Ted for the intellectual set
- [Blanchett the Best Part of “Blue Jasmine”](https://silverscreencapture.com/blue-jasmine/) - Two reasons to see Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine (C): if you're a completist of the idiosyncratic writer/director (I am) and to see Cate Blanchett's layered performance as manic-depressive scorned wife of a Bernie Madoff type (Alec Baldwin). Given the critical adoration of this film, I'd swear there's some pyramid scheme afoot investing richly in Manhattan's maestro
- [“Elysium” a Sturdy Sci-Fi Allegory](https://silverscreencapture.com/elysium/) - Although it is most potent in its first hour, Neill Blomkamp's Elysium (B-) is a sturdily crafted allegory about the haves and have nots of a dystopian future. Matt Damon oozes Everyman charm as the hero, and Jodie Foster chews the scenery of her frosty, somewhat underwritten villainess role. The best parts - the heady, political
- [“Oz: The Great and Powerful” Visuals Eclipse Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-oz-the-great-and-powerful/) - Director Sam Raimi has built a palace on a poppy field with the visually resplendent, narratively inert box office hit Oz: The Great and Powerful (C-). Built around a conman protagonist played by James Franco and featuring the most star studded trio of witches since Disney's similarly hideous Hocus Pocus, this tedious journey through predictable
- [“Spectacular Now” is Affecting Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/spectacular-now/) - James Ponsoldt's The Spectacular Now (B+) reminded me of the '80s fave Lucas with a similar melancholy I found so affecting in Perks of Being a Wallflower, and lead actor Miles Teller as the effortless charmer harboring an alcohol addiction channels a sort of Say Anything era John Cusack, if he were on an endless
- [Powerful “Perks of Being a Wallflower” is a Coming of Age Stunner](https://silverscreencapture.com/perks-wallflower/) - Writer/director Stephen Chbosky has expertly adapted his own novel into a cinematic masterpiece - The Perks of Being a Wallflower (A+) featuring fresh performances by Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and a splendid cast. A rhapsodic, often heartbreaking high school story about the friendships that define us, this one is up there with Breakfast Club, Dead
- [“Cold Mountain” is Epic Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/cold-mountain/) - Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain (B+) is a stirring Civil War-set adventure and romance with some of the best work done by Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger. The director deftly handles two parallel stories, invoking color and detail in the backwaters of battle. The film has epic sweep and intrigue throughout.
- [Ogre the Moon! Animated “Shrek” a Clever Fairy Tale Send-Up](https://silverscreencapture.com/shrek/) - Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson's endlessly imaginative animated tale Shrek (B+) tells the tale of an ogre (voiced by Mike Myers), a donkey (Eddie Murphy) and a princess (Cameron Diaz) on an adventurous journey in a far-away fractured fairy tale land. The in-jokes are inventive and will keep parents in stitches while kids enjoy the
- [“Slumdog Millionare” an Amazing Adult Fairy Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/slumdog-millionare/) - Danny Boyle’s India-set Slumdog Millionaire (A) is an adult fairy tale with elements of magical realism that shows how fate and fortune weave their way into our lives for our own version of happily ever after. As the boy (Dev Patel) who wants to get the girl (Freida Pinto) struggles through poverty, cross-country adventures and
- [“Life of Pi” a Singular, Soul Stirring Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/life-pi/) - There are two incredible tales of survival in Director Ang Lee's Life of Pi (A), and whether you're a person of faith, a stalwart for science and logic or a vessel of varying belief systems, there will be soul stirring in store - and fodder for endless discussion. Actor Suraj Sharma is magnificent as an
- [“Rust and Bone” Rewarding and Romantic](https://silverscreencapture.com/rust-bone/) - A single father/boxer and an aquatic animal trainer reveal physical and emotional wounds and forge an unlikely bond in Jacques Audiard's French language film Rust & Bone (A-). Matthias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard hit all the right notes in an unsentimental drama that could have veered to all sorts of conventional places. Cotillard in particular
- [“Son of Saul” is Harrowing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-son-of-saul/) - One of the most acclaimed Hungarian films in recent years tells the tale of a father endeavoring to bury his son, but there's so much more to the story. László Nemes's chilling you-are-there style Holocaust drama Son of Saul (A-) takes viewers deep into horror and chaos where a heroic dad's singleminded mission to provide
- [Nominees for Best Picture at the 95th Academy Awards (2023)](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-nominees-for-the-95th-academy-awards-2023/) - The nominations were announced this morning, and the winners will be revealed live during the March 12, 2023 telecast on ABC-TV. Some surprises included a nomination for Andrea Riseborough as best actress in the little-seen alcohol recovery drama To Leslie (now available for rent on Amazon Prime) and Brian Tyree Henry in supporting actor opposite
- [“Magic Mike” Makes for Lightweight Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/magic-mike/) - Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike (C) is the origin story of a Tampa-based stripper group (ahem, male entertainment) and is made notable by both the titular character played and danced by a charming Channing Tatum and by the veteran emcee and ringleader placed by a wily and entertaining Matthew McConaughey. Alex Pettyfer plays the film's mangenue,
- [Soderbergh’s “Side Effects” Takes on Big Pharma](https://silverscreencapture.com/side-effects/) - Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects (B+) is both a twisty psychological thriller and a cunning examination of the pharmaceutical industry with an all-star cast including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum and Jude Law. Soderbergh uses his trademark ability to showcase characters in shades of gray to leave viewers guessing about a death and who is to blame.
- [Steven Soderbergh’s Sprawling “Contagion” Twisty and Topical](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-contagion/) - NOTE: 2016 marks the 70th anniversary of the Centers for Disease Control. Many believe this film is a very accurate depiction of the CDC in action. The show "On Second Thought" on Georgia Public Broadcasting's NPR radio will examine the role of CDC in popular culture in July 2016, featuring interviews with Silver Screen Capture.
- [Cunning “Talented Mr. Ripley” a Sun-Baked Identity Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/talented-mr-ripley/) - Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley (A-) is a chilling psychological thriller with Matt Damon playing an American sociopath and scam artist in Italy who covets the life of a couple (Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow) and devises a plan to make their life his own. Picturesque settings and mystery twists and turns mark this
- [“Unbreakable” Twists and Turns](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-unbreakable-2000/) - Bruce Willis plays a security guard who discovers he has supernatural powers after a traumatic accident in M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (B). Willis is charismatic and emotive opposite a mesmerizing Samuel L. Jackson as a mysterious mentor. The writer/director's trademark twists and turns are not quite as revelatory as his Sixth Sense, but he vanquishes
- [M. Night Shyamalan Makes Mighty Mark with “Sixth Sense”](https://silverscreencapture.com/sixth-sense/) - M. Night Shyamalan’s supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense (A-) pairs Bruce Willis and child actor Haley Joel Osment for a tender and suspenseful look at the afterlife. As a psychologist helping a boy who believes he sees and talks to people who have died, Willis is absorbing and effective. Newcomer Osment is very good in
- [“Striking Distance” a Dull Willis Action Vehicle](https://silverscreencapture.com/striking-distance/) - Keep your distance from Rowdy Herrington's Striking Distance (D+), a bloated, boring, self-conscious action flick about a burned-out Pittsburgh cop (Bruce Willis) on the two-year trail of a serial killer. Willis seems to be sleepwalking through this one. Some of the stunts are original; but for the most part, you've seen it all before.
- [“Rising Sun” Over Dull Mystery](https://silverscreencapture.com/rising-sun/) - Philip Kaufman's very boring Rising Sun (D) is a slow-paced mystery set in a high-tech world lacking humor and emotion. As detectives investigating the brutal murder of a woman found in the boardroom of a Japanese-owned company in Los Angeles, Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes deliver tired lines with very little charisma.
- [“The Fugitive” is a Thrilling Chase](https://silverscreencapture.com/fugitive/) - Andrew Davis' The Fugitive (A+), based on the classic TV series of the same name, completely delivers on its intriguing cat-and-mouse premise and is a chase from start to finish. Harrison Ford proves he still has the chops to be an absorbing action hero, and Tommy Lee Jones injects solid comic relief as his tenacious
- [“What's Love Got To Do With It” Takes on the Turners](https://silverscreencapture.com/whats-love-got/) - Director Brian Gibson's biopic about Tina and Ike Turner, What's Love Got To Do With It (B+) is a well-choreographed musical drama, vividly realized with color and energy. While the intense focus on Ike's abuse of Tina overshadow the more joyful moments of her life and career and weigh the film down, Angela Bassett's performance
- [The Pet Sounds of “Love and Mercy” are Purr-fect](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-love-and-mercy/) - Bill Pohlad's Love and Mercy (B) is the unconventional telling of the life of musical wunderkind Brian Wilson, the producer mastermind behind The Beach Boys and one of the most acclaimed albums in history, Pet Sounds. Akin to Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not Here, which famously showcased a parade of performers playing the musician, this
- [“Jersey Boys” Movie the Ultimate Behind the Music](https://silverscreencapture.com/jersey-boys/) - As a director, Clint Eastwood is generally occupied with contemplative exploration of emotion and nuance, often told in a jazzy lower key (think Bridges of Madison County, Million Dollar Baby or Flags of Our Fathers), which makes him an odd choice to helm the adaptation of the long-running Broadway crowd pleaser Jersey Boys. But in
- [More Franchise Fun in “22 Jump Street”](https://silverscreencapture.com/22-jump-street/) - Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's comedy sequel 22 Jump Street (B-) provides just enough laughs from the raunchy raucousness of buddy cops Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill infiltrating college life to ferret out a drug scheme, but the freshness of its predecessor is largely missing. When it plumbs meta antics such as a Buster Keaton
- [“Ted” is a Cuddly Buddy Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/ted/) - Seth MacFarlane scores big as director, co-writer and voice of Ted (A-), a teddy bear brought to life as the boon companion of Mark Wahlberg in a hilarious Boston-set comedy. The teddy bear is a boozy, profane sidekick who gets his human companion in trouble a bit, especially as he courts Mila Kunis. The film
- [“Ted 2” is Teddy Fair](https://silverscreencapture.com/ted-2/) - Seth MacFarlane's sophomoric stoner sequel Ted 2 (C) has enough funny parts to warrant a cable TV viewing, but the buddy comedy highjinks don't match the punch of its predecessor. The first film wisely focused on the central bromance of Mark Wahlberg's lovable lug and his foul-mouthed living teddy bear, voiced by the writer/director. Here
- [“Steve Jobs” is High iArt](https://silverscreencapture.com/steve-jobs-2015/) - Flawed and fascinating like its titular hero, Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs (A-) is a biopic film seeking a new form factor. Told in three critical flashpoints of the computer industry titan's life - namely, his launch of the overhyped Apple Macintosh, of the failed NeXT computer and of the wildly popular iMac that ushered in
- [“Café Society” Makes Little Impression](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-cafe-society/) - At this point watching Woody Allen's late-career films is a mild act of punishment, and the auteur's latest Café Society (D+) is a pretty package of nothing. It's got all the elements of a Woody Allen but no pulse. Set in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Manhattan, the film wins points for art direction
- [“Nocturnal Animals” an Original Stunner](https://silverscreencapture.com/nocturnal-animals/) - Haunted characters inevitably return to the scene of the crime, and in Tom Ford's stunningly realized neo-noir Nocturnal Animals (B+), its principals traverse a tragic, twisty journey to discover the inescapable character traits vexing them through adult life. Ford photographs both a posh Los Angeles modern day story and a Texas-set film-within-the-film with an almost
- [“Manchester by the Sea” is Devastating Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-manchester-by-the-sea/) - The big draw for Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea (A) is a triumphant and buzzed-about performance by Casey Affleck, but the film is such a brilliantly realized and sustained study of grief that it should be hailed as a superb film overall buoyed by this superior lead. Let's get to that performance first: The
- [“Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” is Astonishing](https://silverscreencapture.com/lord-rings-fellowship-ring/) - Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (A) is an epic fantasy that transports viewers to Middle Earth where a band of Hobbits, dwarves, elves and more must transport and destroy an enchanted ring that brings great power to those who wear it before it falls into the hands of dark
- [“John Wick” a Stylish Revenge Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-john-wick/) - Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s John Wick (B-) is an exercise in being single-minded of purpose and being pretty successful at it. Keanu Reeves plays the titular hitman whose loss of a loved one triggers a return into an underbelly of crime as he exacts all-out revenge. The co-directors, clearly inspired by anime and martial
- [Clooney's "Boys in the Boat" is Adrift](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-boys-in-the-boat-2023/) - Rowing movie Boys in the Boat just misses due to sloppy screenplay.
- ["The Founder" Shows Origins of Fast Food with Keaton as Kroc](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-founder-2016/) - In John Lee Hancock's biopic of McDonald's executive Ray Kroc, The Founder (B), the hunger of the protagonist is so palpable you can almost taste it. It's a rather ruthless portrait of a business tycoon with Michael Keaton in fine serpentine form, part Midwest milkman charm, as wily as a Music Man, relentless as a
- ["Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened" Shows Behind the Scenes Sondheim](https://silverscreencapture.com/best-worst/) - Playing at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival Lonny Price's documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (B+) chronicles a requiem and reunion of sorts of cast members and collaborators from the 1981 Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, a show that notoriously failed on Broadway, lasting only 16 performances but that achieved
- ["The Shack" is a Highly Effective Faith-Based Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-shack-2017/) - "The Shack" is a strong faith-based film with a positive, reassuring message about heeding ancient calls to address and learn from contemporary pain.
- ["Split" is a Very Watchable Psychological Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-split/) - Regaining his strut as a writer/director of modern-day suspense films, M. Night Shyamalan has crafted an entertaining psychological thriller and met an acting match for his cinematic chutzpah in James McAvoy headlining Split (B+). The film is above all else a showcase for the considerable acting talents of McAvoy as a man with 23 discrete
- ["Fifty Shades Darker" a Vapid Erotic Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-fifty-shades-darker/) - The relationship status of Christian and Anastasia continues to be "It's Complicated" in James Foley's not-as sloppy-seconds-as-you'd-think sequel Fifty Shades Darker (C+). Dakota Johnson and Jaimie Dornan actually improve a bit on their original portrayals of a couple from different sides of the track marks, as they advance their unusual romance against the demons of
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival 2016 Awards](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-atlanta-jewish-film-festival-announces-first-ever-jury-award-winners/) - After 23 days and a record 202 screenings, the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) celebrated its Closing Night on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017 with the announcement of its first-ever Jury Prizes, which were deliberated by an esteemed panel of filmmakers, journalists and experts. In addition, the festival revealed its annual Audience Award winners, which are
- ["Why Him?" is Funnier Than Expected](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-why-him/) - John Hamburg's Why Him? (B-) is an amusing entry into a fairly tired "family versus fiancé" formula, thanks to strong casting in plum parts for the Christmas-set comedic ensemble. James Franco plays the Silicon Valley mogul at the film's heart, relishing the role with his trademark wide-eyed wit and devil-may-care vulgarity. Enter the nuclear family
- [2016 Oscar Predictions in Eight Major Categories](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-oscar-predictions-in-eight-major-categories/) - UPDATE: Moonlight was the upset Best Picture winner, and Casey Affleck prevailed as Best Actor in one of the most unusual awards ceremonies of recent years! Original Story: The countdown begins until Academy Awards weekend! 2016 ended up being a pretty good year for movies, with a slate of outstanding films vying for top
- [Jordan Peele's "Get Out" is a Powderkeg of a Psychological Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-get-out/) - Prepare your senses for the clock-woke orange pulp confection of audacious moviemaking to hit a nerve in some time. Funnyman-turned-first-time-director Jordan Peele's psychological thriller Get Out (A-) is a suspenseful and lively tale of a twentysomething black photographer (Daniel Kaluuya) visiting the suburban family of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams), and the maiden voyage is
- ["Logan" is a Fantastic Reinvention of the Superhero Form](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-logan/) - It's an encore from a legend worthy of the bows and two-clawed applause. And although it may not quite justify its extended running time, James Mangold's Logan (B+) is elegiac and electric, giving Hugh Jackman's blade-limbed hero a fitting farewell. It's the first superhero of the sandwich generation as Boomer Wolverine becomes dual caretaker for
- ["Kong: Skull Island" is Uninspired](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-kong-skull-island/) - In the latest case of CGI taxidermy, Jordan Vogt-Roberts' Kong: Skull Island (C+) plumbs a menagerie of good ideas but doesn't zero in on any of them well enough. Set in the post-Vietnam War era, a band of American explorers sets sail to an uncharted land filled with mythical creatures and must confront if they
- ["CHiPS" is Another Terrible Movie Based on an Old TV Series](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-chips/) - These sleazy riders receive a citation and a C- for being decidedly middle of the road. Dax Shepard wrote, directed and stars as Jon opposite Michael Peña's Ponch in the buddy comedy film based on the vintage TV show CHiPS, and the West coast chill vibe is so pervasive that the movie nearly forgets to
- [Disney's Live-Action "Beauty and the Beast" Remake Pretty Good](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-beauty-and-beast-2017/) - Despite being overstuffed and overproduced, Emma Watson is by far the best special effect in Bill Condon's live action Beauty & the Beast (B-) as the luminous leading lady who enlivens the fairy tale proceedings with enchanting radiance. Attempts to color outside the lines of the 1991 animated musical's story and to lovingly re-create iconic
- [Hebrew Film "The Women's Balcony" is a Winner](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-womens-balcony/) - Emil Ben-Shimon's The Women's Balcony (Hebrew Title: Ismach Hatani) (B+) is an often jubilant dramedy about taking a stand, especially when oppression manifests with a seductive face. After a flimsy women's prayer balcony in an aging Jerusalem synagogue topples and the temple's senile rabbi is too infirm to oversee the renovation, the men of the
- ["Gifted" is a Lovely Surprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-gifted/) - The actor Chris Evans superbly inhabits the role of his young lifetime as a caretaker uncle of a child prodigy in Mark Webb's moving melodrama Gifted (B+). It's easy to dismiss the film as Good Will Hunting: Junior Edition, Kramer vs. Kramer: Special Girl Genius Unit or even what happens next if Manchester by the
- ["Table 19" is a Tedious Bore](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-table-19/) - Jeffrey Blitz's Table 19 (D+) is a few chairs short of a winner. Despite the presence of Anna Kendrick, Craig Robinson and Lisa Kudrow, this comedy about mismatched guests at a wedding table never fully gels in its attempt at droll observational humor. The characters are implausible and their actions unmotivated. The director, along with
- ["The Fate of the Furious" (2017) is a Fun Entry in the Racing Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-fate-of-the-furious/) - F. Gary Gray's The Fate of the Furious (B-), the eighth film in the adrenaline-soaked automobiles and action series (and the reported first part of a three-film story arch of international espionage involving a cyberterrorism ring), logs a lot of miles to deliver its promised blockbuster goods. Heroes in hacking and hot-roding such as Dwayne
- ["The Circle" is Undercooked Social Media Commentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-circle-2017/) - Despite being imminently topical as a meditation on privacy in the age of social media, James Ponsoldt's The Circle (C-) manages to misfire in its major story arch, acting choices, thematic intensity and ultimate resolution. Emma Watson bears the burden of an underwritten role as the protagonist who joins an all-encompassing social networking company that
- ["Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" Continues Unexpected Superhero Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2/) - Told in multicolor hues that would make a frappuccino unicorn whinny and packed to the gills with gee-whiz gadgetry, action and laughter, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (B+) is most successful when it examines the unconventional family dynamics of Marvel's outer space superheroes. With baby on board (Groot, that is, and his
- ["Baywatch" Movie a Surprising Bore](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-baywatch-2017/) - It's sink or swim time at the multiplex, and Seth Gordon's feeble film adaptation of guilty pleasure lifeguards on the loose TV series Baywatch (C-), complete with beach-side booty and treasured chests but not much else, fails to deliver enough compelling content to stay afloat. Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron are fine in stock roles
- ["It Comes at Night" is Suspenseful](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-it-comes-at-night-2017/) - Written and directed by Terrence Malick protégé Trey Edward Shults, It Comes at Night (B+) is a superb psychological horror film that wrings generous art house thrills out of a straightforward apocalyptic premise. A couple and their son (Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo and Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) have secluded themselves in a country home as a
- ["All Eyez on Me" is Often Enthralling](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-all-eyez-on-me/) - Benny Boom's by the numbers Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me (B-) is buoyed by Demetrius Shipp Jr. who is electric in the lead role and Danai Gurira who is effective in a supporting role as his political activist mother. Shakur the man spent his short 25 years as an entertainer, provocateur and man
- ["Beatriz at Dinner" a Dramedy Surprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-beatriz-at-dinner/) - With a timely script by frequent collaborator Mike White, Miguel Arteta's Beatriz at Dinner (A-) is billed as a dark comedy but is actually one of the most arresting dramas of the year, anchored by a title performance by Salma Hayek that will become an indelible part of the cinema canon and the actress's defining
- ["The Beguiled" Doesn't Live Up to Its Dramatic Promise](https://silverscreencapture.com/the-beguiled-2017/) - A tepid Southern-gothic melodrama about a wounded Union soldier harbored in a small Confederate girls' school during the Civil War, Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled (D+) explores the effects of an intrusive and intriguing outside force on a tight-knit group. It's part hot and bothered but mostly "why'd she bother?" as Coppola pours on curiously long
- ["Dave Made a Maze" Gets Lost in the Labyrinth](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-dave-made-a-maze/) - Bill Watterson's Dave Made a Maze (C-) is puzzlingly one-note, like a student film stretched incessantly to feature length and a bit too pleased with its random acts of peculiarity. When a frustrated thirty-year-old (Nick Thune, unconvincing) builds a cardboard labyrinth in his apartment and unwittingly "boxes" his hipster friends within a walled garden that
- ["Baby Driver" is a Fabulous Crime Caper](https://silverscreencapture.com/baby-driver/) - Four decades after Bandit's criss-crossing car chases left Smokey in the dust of Georgia, Edgar Wright's Atlanta-set Baby Driver (A) grafts grifts and getaways, criminally comic chase capers and manic musical syncopations that yield new song to this southern boomtown into a wholly original new entertainment. This candy-colored fantasia is an engrossing and involving tale
- ["The Big Sick" is a Strong Dose of Dark Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-big-sick/) - With Michael Showalter's The Big Sick (B+), cinema catches up a bit to television as small screen cast and collaborators bring an outsider cross-cultural sensibility to the traditional Hollywood romantic comedy formula. Star and semiautobiographical co-screenwriter Kumail Nanjiani brings a mild-mannered and endearing quality to his lead performance as a Pakistani Muslim stand-up comic who
- [Atlanta's Out On Film 30 in 2017](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-out-on-film-30-feature-film-highlights/) - Out On Film, Atlanta’s LGBT film festival, is celebrating its 30th year and has announced its programming of more than 120 feature films, documentaries, short films and web series. Out On Film 30 will take place September 28 – October 8 at Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema, Out Front Theatre Company and the Plaza Theatre. Festival
- ["Spider-Man: Homecoming" is a Charming Reboot](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-spider-man-homecoming/) - Jon Watts's Spider-Man: Homecoming (B+) marks the superhero's seventh on-screen adventure (as played by Tom Holland, he most recently had a minor but memorable role in Captain America: Civil War) and his first standalone Marvel movie, with small bits by a quintet of actors popularized in other universe franchise series. Thankfully this third reboot of
- [Nolan's "Dunkirk" a War Movie on Three Parallel Paths](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-dunkirk/) - Provoking a desire for audiences to watch a movie again in order to further study how all the narratives connect isn't exactly a badge of storytelling honor. Writer/director Christopher Nolan continues his march to cinematic glory with two lofty experiments within one compact and technically thrilling WWII film in Dunkirk (B) and sometimes succeeds in
- ["Girls Trip" a Giddy Ride](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-girls-trip/) - Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish lift the curse of this summer's R-rated comedies while celebrating the power of wonder women with a joyous journey to New Orleans in Malcolm D. Lee's Girls Trip (B). The quartet of actresses play lifelong friends who reconnect after a few years apart over a
- ["Detroit" Just Misses the Dramatic Heft For Which It Aspires](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-detroit-2017/) - Although its historic events are lavishly recreated and the cinematography and production values top-notch, Kathryn Bigelow's panorama about the racially charged 12th Street Riot of 1967, Detroit (C), struggles to finds its dramatic POV or emotional center of gravity. The events depicted clearly resonate with modern times, what with the painstaking portrayals of police brutality
- ["Inhumans" (2017) = a Forgotten Entry in the MCU](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-inhumans-2017/) - Fall is coming! The first two episodes of a new Marvel TV series, presented in IMAX prior to release on ABC, Inhumans (B-) is a fairly formulaic but mostly well executed comic book adaptation of a royal espionage action drama, as realized by director Roel Reiné. As a baddie leading a coup on a secret
- ["Beach Rats" Examines Machismo Culture](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-beach-rats/) - Eliza Hittman's Beach Rats (B-) is a dreamlike Brooklyn-set character study about an aimless young man who struggles with his sexuality as he tries to be macho for his seaside buddies and girlfriend while leading a furtive double life of Internet hook-ups and drug-crazed dalliances. Breakthrough actor Harris Dickinson is mesmerizing in the central role,
- ["It" (2017) is Ho-Hum Stephen King Horror Adaptation](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-it-2017/) - Being trapped in a funhouse of fears with precocious kids and a flesh-eating dancing clown may be the stuff of horror film aficionado fever dreams. But something is definitely missing in Andy Muschietti's movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel, It (C+), chapter one of a planned duology, a film that oozes with Spielbergian nostalgia but
- [2017's "Mother!" is Unpleasant, Oblivious and By the End Obvious](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mother-2017/) - The haunted house movie, the expectant mom horror film, the pretentious self-aware arthouse offering and the annual fall travesty starring Jennifer Lawrence all sink to incredible new lows in the gobsmackingly bad new Darren Aronofsky film, Mother! (D). Rarely has a ham-fisted metaphor been more startlingly stretched over a motion picture's running time. Ostensibly this
- ["California Typewriter" Documentary Shows Why We Hold Onto the Past](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-california-typewriter/) - A meditation told in a minor key on technology at a crossroads, mild obsessions with antiquity and the art of physical creation, cinematographer Doug Nichol's debut documentary California Typewriter (B) is a thoughtful glimpse at the history of and current appropriation of a classic and seemingly obsolete invention: the typewriter. This quirky, QWERTY topic opens
- [Alan Cumming is Strong in Vincent Gagliostro's Gay Drama "After Louie"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-after-louie/) - Vincent Gagliostro's After Louie (B) is ostensibly a "May-December romance" between Alan Cumming as an artist and Zachary Booth as his muse. Through the lens of an engrossing inter-generational relationship, the film spotlights attitudes about the AIDS crisis reflected through those tethered to the heights of its tragedy and those buoyed by a renewed and
- ["Victoria & Abdul" is a Perfect Choice to Watch with Your Aunt](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-victoria-abdul/) - There's a cougar in a crown and a monswoon-worthy suitor for the year's most unlikely love story. A handsomely produced historical dramedy set in England midway through the British rule of India, Stephen Frears's Victoria & Abdul (A-) pairs a glorious Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and charming Ali Fazal as Indian servant Abdul Karim
- [Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049" Delivers More Slow-Burn Sci-Fi Noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-blade-runner-2049/) - Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (B-) continues the slow-burn neo-noir dystopian atmosphere of Ridley Scott's 1982 predecessor and flips the script on some of the motifs about androids ("replicants") being able to approximate human emotions. Handsomely produced with mesmerizing imagery and endowed with a good-looking cast of characters sorting out future L.A. life a few
- [Arty Musical "Hello Again" is an Unusual 2017 Discovery](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hello-again-2017/) - The search for elusive love is literally operatic in Tom Gustafson's sexy, dreamlike musical adaptation Hello Again (B+), a film that traces ten romantic vignettes across the ten decades of the twentieth century. A percussive longing possesses all the movie's melodic segments, as does a poetic score by Michael John LaChiusa. The twin language of
- ["The Florida Project" is Gritty and Genuine](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-florida-project/) - The kids aren’t alright in their postcard-perfect paradise in an insightful new dramatic film. Sean Baker’s The Florida Project (B+) depicts an often underrepresented underbelly of America with a timely, tragic, twisty Technicolor tale. A seriocomic summer idyll from a child’s POV ultimately blurs into an illuminating fantasia on the new working class of America. Set
- ["Thor: Ragnarok" Drops the Hammer of Laughter](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-thorragnarok/) - It’s a “Hela” family reunion as Thor and Loki meet their long lost sinister sister in Taiki Waititi’s anything-goes Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok (B-). The director’s casual humor and electric interplanetary aesthetic channeling Flash Gordon make for a much-needed change of pace after the solemn second film in this trilogy. But it’s all a bit
- ["Wonderstruck" Has Lots on Its Mind But Fails to Gel](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-wonderstruck/) - Wonderstruck (C-), the new film by Todd Haynes from a screenplay by Brian Selznick, who adapted his prestigious book of the same title, feels like walking into an unfinished exhibit at a museum. There are some glorious visuals and some hints of breakthrough ideas, but it all simply doesn’t hang together. Child actors Oakes Fegley
- ["Murder on the Orient Express" 2017 Remake is Lots of Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-murder-on-the-orient-express-2017/) - Movie remakes can be a bit like theatrical revivals when there’s a corker of a story to tell with a thrilling new ensemble, but Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 version of Murder on the Orient Express (B-) with the actor/director in the top-billed role as the intrepid Detective Poirot doesn’t add or enrich the story enough in
- [Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" is a Breath of Fresh Air](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-lady-bird/) - Writer/director Greta Gerwig’s coming of age dramedy Lady Bird (A) is witty and wise and recognizes the nuances and power of mini revolutions afoot in the life of a teenager. Saoirse Ronan is sensational as the titular protagonist, a high schooler who feels trapped in the first world problems of life in Sacramento. The plot
- ["Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" is Sly, Smart](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri/) - Martin McDonagh’s unconventional revenge drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (A) is one of the finest films of the year, upending expectations about a collection of well drawn characters in Small Town, America. Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell give rich performances as a grieving mother of a murdered teenage girl and the seemingly
- ["Mudbound" is an Absorbing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mudbound/) - One of this year’s most acclaimed movies from Sundance and a film that is generating Oscar buzz is now available on Netflix while enjoying a limited theatrical release. Dee Rees’s Mudbound (A) is a modern American masterpiece centering on a black and white family with intertwining destinies in and around the era of WWII. Shared
- [Sentimental Drama "Wonder" Unexpectedly Works](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-wonder-2017/) - A wholesome and uplifting tale of empathy and inclusion, Stephen Chbosky’s Wonder (B+) traces the impact a middle schooler with disfiguring Treacher Collins syndrome has on his family and classmates. The story isn’t especially revolutionary - it’s full of familiar tropes with friends and bullies and overcoming obstacles - but it’s the heartfelt grace and
- [Charming "Coco" Takes Viewers to New Places](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-coco/) - Lee Unkrich’s animated Disney Pixar adventure Coco (B) is alive with vibrant detail in painting a compelling Día de Muertos fantasia of light, color and music. The story of a Mexican boy torn between heeding a duty to family and following his clarion call to become a mariachi musician, the film toggles between Lands of
- [Golden Globe Movie Nominees Announced - 2017 Films](https://silverscreencapture.com/awards-news-golden-globe-movie-nominees-announced/) - Awards season is in high gear! The Golden Globe nominations were announced today and are seen as a precursor to Oscar glory for many prestige pics. The Golden Globes ceremony will be broadcast live on NBC on January 7, 2018. Here are the biggest vote-getters, by numbers of nominations. The Shape of Water: 7 The
- ["Darkest Hour" a Strong Historical Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-darkest-hour/) - Joe Wright’s historical biopic The Darkest Hour (B) takes few creative liberties as it chronicles Winston Churchill’s resolve to protect England from Hitler’s military, but the film is most notable because it affords Gary Oldman a rich fully inhabited central performance as the decisive and divisive prime minister. The direction is physically and metaphorically claustrophobic,
- ["The Shape of Water" a Fresh Take on Monster Movie Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-shape-of-water-2017/) - A triumph of production design with a colorful supporting cast surrounding a bit of a hollow central storyline, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (B) reimagines The Creature from the Black Lagoon in 1960s Cold War Baltimore with Sally Hawkins as a mute janitor at a military science lab who falls for Doug Jones’
- ["Molly’s Game" an Intriguing Crime Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mollys-game/) - Writer/director Aaron Sorkin’s crime drama Molly’s Game (B) is a crackling showcase for Jessica Chastain’s formidable acting skills as she portrays a woman who teeters dangerously close to the edge commandeering an underground poker league. Sorkin’s brilliant level of detail about the shady activities shines throughout, and Idris Elba is strong as the protagonist’s patient
- ["Home Again" a Rare Miss for Witherspoon](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-home-again/) - Despite appealing performers, Hollie Meyers-Shyer’s Home Again (D+) misses the mark in nearly every way. Reese Witherspoon plays an L.A.-based single mom whose brush with three plucky young filmmakers (Pico Alexander, Jon Rudnitsky and Nat Wolf) prompts an unconventional living situation. Candice Bergen and Michael Sheen are among those in the ensemble wasted by a
- ["Wonder Wheel" is Uninspired Woody Allen](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-wonder-wheel-2017/) - Seaside like Chekhov, housebound like O’Neill and carousel adjacent like Rodgers and Hammerstein, Woody Allen stages a most superficial and unsatisfying drama in a picture perfect 1950s Coney Island in Wonder Wheel (D+), a film that spins in the same rote roulette of themes the writer/director has plumbed for the past few decades. Lazy plot
- ["Call Me By Your Name" a Coming of Age Masterpiece](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-call-me-by-your-name/) - A love that dare not speak its name gets its most magnificent due in an uncommonly affecting and breathtaking new film. Director Luca Guadagnino’s idyllic, romantic coming of age drama Call Me by Your Name (A) transports viewers to 1983 Northern Italy and, despite its foreign film aesthetic and slow burn pacing, presents a truly
- ["Greatest Showman" an Unexpected Musical Hit](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-greatest-showman-2017/) - If you’re the kind of person who would love to run off to join the circus with a singing and dancing Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron, you’re in luck with the arrival of Michael Gracey’s The Greatest Showman (B+). This handsomely produced, high gloss musical adaptation of the mid-19th century life of P.T. Barnum (don’t
- [Alexander Payne's "Downsizing" an Underappreciated Satirical Gem](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-downsizing-2017/) - Alexander Payne pushes more buttons than audiences may expect in his new human miniaturization movie; it’s par for the course for the midwestern provocateur. This skilled writer/director blends physical pratfalls, witty wordplay, social satire, wicked parody and almost every conceivable flavor of comedy for the deliriously inventive and surprisingly highbrow Downsizing (A-). Matt Damon is
- [Ridley Scott's "All The Money In The World" a Sometimes Absorbing Crime Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-all-the-money-in-the-world/) - Even when he “phones it in,” Ridley Scott, a film director at the height of his powers, brings compelling dimension and scope to his movies. His latest, All the Money in the World (B-) chronicles the kidnapping, ransom and attempted rescue of the heir to the Getty family, notorious for wealth generated through oil and
- ["John Wick: Chapter 2" Doubles Down on Nonstop Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-john-wick-chapter-2/) - Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 2 (B) doubles down on the surprisingly solid franchise’s signature nonstop action while expanding the backstory and lore of Keanu Reeves’ eponymous character, a retired hit man seeking vengeance. Who would have guessed this wall-to-wall actioner would go full Godfather 2 and serve up a gracious expanded universe? The acting
- ["I, Tonya" Tells Darkly Comic True Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-i-tonya/) - None of the characters in Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya (C) are going to win top honors in The Nice Capades, but I give the actors credit for their commitment to a biopic that is equally uneven in its tone and its point of view. The faux documentary style largely works in chronicling the real-life tale
- ["Pitch Perfect 3" Loses Its Way](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-pitch-perfect-3/) - After the original film showcased the fresh sounds and culture of collegiate a capella and the sequel amped up girl power in glorious fashion, Trish Sie’s Pitch Perfect 3 (C-) squanders the goodwill the musical comedy franchise has engendered with a denouement that temporarily turns the franchise into a head-scratching thriller before briefly returning to
- [2017's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" a Fun Family Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-jumanji-welcome-to-the-jungle/) - A bit more subversive at times than expected while still fun for the family, Jake Kasdan’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (B) is ostensibly a riff on The Breakfast Club if detention were actually a fantasy forest of video game characters and its ensemble of aimless teens transformed into avatars on a quest for their
- [Given Pedigree of Filmmakers, "The Post" Disappoints](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-post-2017/) - Steven Spielberg’s The Post (B-) is a movie about newspapers that buries the lede. After a painfully languid first 80 minutes in which the director simply fetishizes his faithful art direction of 1970s D.C., this historical drama culminates in a corker of a close that affirms faith in the free press and reveals an inspiring
- ["Saturday Church" Shows a Different Side of Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/saturday-church/) - The coming of age musical fantasy Saturday Church (B), written and directed by Damon Cardasis, is a balm for modern times as well as a bit of a love offering, with tender and affecting performances set to soaring music punctuating a meaningful meditation on what makes a family. Luka Kain is magnetic as the teenage
- [Paul Thomas Anderson's "Phantom Thread" is a Deliciously Delicate Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-phantom-thread/) - In the case of impresario P.T. (Anderson, that is) and the greatest sew-man of posh 1950’s London, the peculiar and perversely romantic Phantom Thread (B+) raises sartorial obsession to high art and establishes an arch melodrama out of the romantic embellishments that temper a tempest. Daniel Day-Lewis is the mercurial fashion designer at the film’s
- ["Paddington 2" Delivers More Charm and Whimsy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-paddington-2/) - Paul King’s Paddington 2 (B+) is charming family entertainment but with a marmalade tart wit and whimsy exceeding its simple premise. Voice actor Ben Whishaw and delightful actors such as Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville are back from the original film, joined by Hugh Grant in an unexpected tour de force as an unscrupulous out
- [Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther" a Wonderful Marvel Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-black-panther-2018/) - Writer/director Ryan Coogler’s entry into the Marvel franchise, Black Panther (B+), is a regal rouser with a superhero who also presides as monarch of a fictional secret African nation. Chadwick Boseman is dashing as the lead in the globetrotting film set largely in his high-tech palace city, but (like Thor) he’s often upstaged by a
- ["Annihilation" Full of Solid Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-annihilation/) - Writer/director Alex Garland’s Annihilation (B) is largely an incredibly absorbing sci-fi thriller about an army of women who venture behind a quarantined force field to resolve the enigma of the atmospheric abnormality going on inside. Natalie Portman is solid as the former military biology professor with a secret who discovers many of the chilling mutations
- ["Game Night" Lots of Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-game-night-2018/) - Welcome to candyland for moviegoers who won’t be sorry for taking a risk on a new film that blends clue upon clue with sly takes on the game of life. Although it lingers a beat longer than it should, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s Game Night (B+) arrives on the top of the leader
- ["Thoroughbreds" Doesn't Gallop](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-thoroughbreds/) - A nihilistic murder mystery posing in pretensions and occasional droll droplets of gallows humor, Cory Finley’s Thoroughbreds (C-) neglects consistent character development in the service of a nifty premise. Olivia Cooke is a revelation as a young woman incapable of emotion, and she becomes the perfect partner in crime for a differently depressed rich teen
- ["Love, Simon" is Saccharine But Sweet, Quietly Revolutionary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-love-simon/) - Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon (B) is quietly revolutionary as a first mainstream teen coming of age movie featuring a gay protagonist, but the struggle with identity extends beyond its titular character to a somewhat milquetoast story and screenplay topped with a dollop of vanilla tone. The film is largely fun and occasionally quite moving, and
- [Spielberg's "Ready Player One" Misses the Magic](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-movie-review-ready-player-one/) - Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (B-) includes several moments of such unmitigated bliss that it’s a shame the full picture has a sloppy aesthetic, a cluttered and overlong story and utterly one-dimensional characters. It’s such a pop culture bonanza that it sometimes feels more like an incidental Comic-Con documentary than an actual feature film with
- ["Blockers" is Sporadically Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-blockers/) - Blockers (C+), Kay Cannon’s film about a trio of parents trying to thwart their teenage daughters’ prom night sex pact, chokes before the comedy deal is sealed. John Cena, Ike Barinholtz and Leslie Mann fare better than the teenage actors in a movie too full of pointless pratfalls, distracting detours and unnecessary supporting characters to
- ["A Quiet Place" a Crackling Original Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-a-quiet-place/) - Have you heard? A popular new film genuinely nails how fiercely parents will fight for the safety of their offspring. And the fact that the ultimate fight is staged in near-silence brings great power and resonance to the proceedings. John Krasinski directs, co-writes and stars in A Quiet Place (A), a taut and surprisingly tender
- ["Avengers: Infinity War" Moves the Marvel Saga Along](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-avengers-infinity-war/) - Disney and Marvel pull off a friendly merger, a team retreat and a shocking spinoff in the perfectly adequate but unremarkable Avengers: Infinity War (C+) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. The Avengers team of superheroes works with the Guardians of the Galaxy in an attempt to thwart baddie Thanos (a solid Josh Brolin under
- ["Tully" a Comic Surprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-movie-review-tully/) - A witty, bittersweet dramedy about the coping mechanisms a third-time mom uses to reconnect with her best self when her rich brother underwrites a “nighttime nanny” for her, Jason Reitman’s Tully (A) is a master class in characterization, with star Charlize Theron and writer Diablo Cody delivering at the top of their games. Opposite an
- ["Deadpool 2" is Funny and Filthy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-deadpool-2/) - The novelty is gone but the jokes spring eternal in David Leitch’s sarcastic superhero sequel Deadpool 2 (B-). Ryan Reynolds is again charismatic but keeps company with some pretty average associates in this low-stakes installment. Encounters with some characters in the X-Men and X-Force orbit and stories about time travel, paternal instincts and doing hard
- ["Adrift" Survival Story Doesn't Keep Interest](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-adrift/) - It’s all shiplap and survival in Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Adrift (C), but despite the game efforts of a spry Shailene Woodley and a fetching Sam Claflin in central performances, this castaway escapade doesn’t have anywhere to go. Mostly set aboard a damaged ship on the Pacific, the film cross-crosses between a central dramatic endurance
- ["How to Talk to Girls at Parties" Flirts and Misses](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-how-to-talk-to-girls-at-parties/) - It’s the ‘70s punk rock era Britain-set coming of age Kama Sutra alien infiltration cult curiosity you didn’t know you were looking for. The always imaginative auteur and champion of underground subcultures John Cameron Mitchell’s latest film merits a B rating. The movie has a video store friendly title, How to Talk to Girls at
- ["RBG" Documentary Gives Rare Glimpse into Life of Supreme Court Justice](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-rbg/) - A profile in courage, consistency and living life with purpose and passion, Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s documentary about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, RBG (A-), is a stand-up-and-cheer portrait of an unlikely cultural hero. Diminutive and soft-spoken, she is hardly the most obvious person to have captured the cultural zeitgeist or to be
- ["Hereditary" a Horror Knockout](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hereditary/) - Ari Aster’s suspense drama Hereditary (B+) is a stunner, upending many expectations of typical horror movies for something even more raw: delving into the experience of losing loved ones, exploring compartmentalization of pain and unearthing abnormalities lurking in one’s family tree. The film deserves comparisons with The Shining and The Exorcist and showcases a master
- [Snappy "Incredibles 2" Surpasses Original](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-incredibles-2/) - As both writer and director of Incredibles 2 (A), Brad Bird’s mastery of the animated form is on display in delirious grandeur. Far surpassing his original film in wit, creativity and subtext, the auteur has delivered one of the most engaging films of the year. The retro comic book style provides a delightful backdrop for
- ["Blindspotting" is a Fresh Story About Modern Times](https://silverscreencapture.com/blindspotting-review/) - Oakland is woke-land for a duo of friends looking to flip the script on clean living and justice in Carlos López Estrada’s Blindspotting (A-). Daveed Diggs of Hamilton and Rafael Casal parlay rap, poetry and spoken word into a creative indie about two blue collar bros trapped in conflicting narratives after a late-night shooting. The
- ["Ant-Man and the Wasp" is Mediocre Marvel](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-ant-man-and-the-wasp/) - I suppose you can’t make too much of a Marvel-ous mountain out of an ant hill. Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp (C) is an exercise in low-stakes water treading, with a few clever miniaturization sight gags and funny throwaway jokes from Paul Rudd and Michael Peña to punctuate the perfunctory proceedings. Michael Douglas and
- ["Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" Tries to Keep the Party Going](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mamma-mia-here-we-go-again/) - Alas sometimes these super sequel troopers leave you feeling like a number two. Ol Parker’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (C+) has a lot working against it: soundtrack of ABBA B-sides as opposed to the first film’s greatest hits, a largely missing Meryl Streep (whose credibility helped elevate the preceding film to its guilty pleasure
- ["The Last Movie Star" (2018) Features Burt Reynolds](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-last-movie-star-2018/) - Tinseltown’s swaggering hero Burt Reynolds passed away today, and one of this famously mustached actor’s final movies is Adam Rifkin’s The Last Movie Star (C-), now available on demand after a spring premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. This autumnal Tennessee-set tribute to a faded star - the ornery type who routinely uses words such
- [Brittle "First Reformed" an Engrossing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-first-reformed/) - Both writer/director Paul Schrader and his protagonist protestant minister played by Ethan Hawke are revelations in First Reformed (B+), an engrossing drama about a man marked by a mannered and modulated exterior fighting demons right under the surface. Hawke’s performance as a tormented military chaplain turned reverend of an isolated historic church is some of
- [Fall Movie Preview 2018](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-fall-movie-preview-2018/) - From prestigious black and white arthouse movies generating awards talk to bubblegum hued adventures with personality bouncing off multiplex walls, the movies of autumn seek to capture your imagination. We’ve rounded up the most buzzworthy flicks to add to your binge list. Costume dramas are all the rage as the weather gets cold, so expect
- [Documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" Shows TV Icon's Generous Spirit](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-wont-you-be-my-neighbor/) - More dignified than a King Friday XIII proclamation and more vulnerably raw than a question from Daniel Striped Tiger, there’s a new film that eases in like a little red cable car straight into your heart with vast implications worthy of deep contemplation. Morgan Neville’s documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (A) about the life
- [Smart "Eighth Grade" an Absorbing Slice of Life](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-eighth-grade/) - Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade (B+) is so knowing it hurts. The comedian turned writer/director’s darker than expected feature debut is a canny you-are-there coming of age story. It follows a painfully shy middle schooler, magnificently played by Elsie Fisher, who struggles with the everyday challenges of her final days of classes on the precipice of
- ["Crazy Rich Asians" a Wonderful Romantic Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-review-crazy-rich-asians/) - Best known until now as a director of Step Up sequels, a Justin Bieber concert movie and flop flicks about G.I. Joe and Jem and the Holograms, Jon M. Chu seems an unlikely helmer of one of the first nearly all Asian American ensembles since 1993’s Joy Luck Club and one of the most satisfying
- [Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" is a Triumph](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-blackkklansman/) - This is one of those declassified historical true stories like Argo that’s stranger than fiction and eerily prescient in its parallels to events of today. Pop cultural and historical provocateur Spike Lee’s brilliant 1970’s-set biopic BlacKkKlansman (A-) is an absorbing and gripping instant classic, the best non-documentary “joint” the writer/director has made in nearly two
- ["Searching" Pioneers the Screen-in-Screen Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/early-movie-review-searching-2018/) - This is the gripping “found movie” for a perpetually plugged-in world. In Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching (B+), the protagonist father portrayed wonderfully by John Cho often contemplates sessions further down the web’s wormhole while resisting the notion to simply shut down. Grounding this mystery thriller, Cho’s desktop pop ups the ante - online, engaged and amplified
- [The Latest 2018 "A Star is Born" is a Heartbreaking Hit](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-a-star-is-born-2018/) - Director Bradley Cooper’s unlikely remake of A Star is Born (B) throws in all the tropes of a good melodrama: it’s a Rose of a Love Story packaged within a gritty and naturalistic ‘70s film aesthetic. It’s also a vanity project seemingly stripped of vanity, and Cooper and leading Lady Gaga pull the heartstrings in one
- [Damien Chazelle's Cerebral "First Man" Chooses Odd Focus](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-first-man-2018/) - Damien Chazelle, Hollywood’s celebrated enfant terrible who burst onto the scene like a supernova with Whiplash and La La Land, delivers exactly the opposite of his expected output with a brooding and tortuously technical biopic about Neil Armstrong, and it’s no wonder the sky-high critical and box office promises of First Man (C-) have remained
- ["The Hate U Give" is Affecting Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-hate-u-give/) - Based on a popular young adult novel and ripped out of today’s headlines, George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give (B+) features the remarkable Amandla Stenberg as a black teenager trapped between two worlds: her family’s historic inner city neighborhood and the posh suburban private school where she tries to fit in which largely white
- ["Halloween" - the 2018 Version - a Welcome Return](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-halloween-2018/) - The showdown between masked man Michael Myers and scream queen Laurie Strode has the epic makings of another Thrilla in Manila, and the roar of the hype can be cut with a knife and underscored with creepy synthesizers. David Gordon Green’s 2018 film Halloween (B) is a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original same-named 1978
- ["Can You Ever Forgive Me?" is Absorbing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-can-you-ever-forgive-me/) - There’s a fascinating film sub-genre of true stories so outlandish you can scarcely believe they really happened - Argo, BlacKkKlansman, Catch Me If You Can, to name a few - and then there's the real tale of author Lee Israel, whose potent mix of career desperation, misanthropism and alcoholism signals exactly why she got involved
- ["Bohemian Rhapsody" Captures Spirit of Queen](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-bohemian-rhapsody/) - If you’ve self-selected as curious about Bryan Singer’s Queen rock and roll biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (B), you will undoubtedly find yourself floating around in ecstasy at how the troubled production turned out. A star is reborn onscreen and his Gaga is radio ready as Rami Malek fully inhabits the role of flamboyant lead singer Freddie
- ["If Beale Street Could Talk" Offers Lowkey Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-if-beale-street-could-talk/) - A much more subtle breakout than Moonlight for writer/ director Barry Jenkins, his adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk (B) tells the story of an African-American woman (newcomer KiKi Layne) who seeks to clear the name of her wrongly convicted husband (Stephan James) and prove his innocence before the birth of their
- ["Widows" a Phenomenal Heist Thriller and Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-widows-2018/) - Transplanting a British miniseries to modern day Chicago centering on a quartet of women completing a heist started by their late husbands, Steve McQueen’s mystery/drama Widows (A) is juicy, layered, intense and phenomenal. Buoyed by an excellent Viola Davis as the central protagonist (her late husband is inspired casting: Liam Neeson) and boasting an across
- ["Boy Erased" Should Have Been Stronger](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-boy-erased/) - This film goes from shock and awe to aw, shucks way too abruptly. Memoir adapter and director Joel Edgerton continues in his horror milieu with Boy Erased (C+), exposing life in a gay conversion therapy center as a form of interior and institutional terror. It’s a bit of a low-key rainbow hued Cuckoo’s Nest or
- ["Green Book" a Throwback But With Wonderful Acting Pair](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-green-book/) - In a year of breakthrough films by African-American directors, of black excellence, panthers and klansmen, of Beale Street scuttlebutt and warrior widows, an unlikely white director has also hopped on the race relations bandwagon, helming a durable and crowd pleasing vehicle that’s worthy of more than a footnote. In fact, there’s something about director Peter
- [NBR Top Films of 2018](https://silverscreencapture.com/national-board-of-review-top-films-of-2018/) - The National Board of Review (NBR) announced its winners, including a list of 2018's Top Ten Films, to be formally awarded January 8, 2019, in NYC. The inspirational '60s race relations dramedy Green Book (first prize as best picture and for one of its leading men) and the music-filled romance remake A Star Is Born
- ["Creed II" Successfully Continues the Boxing Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-creed-ii/) - Steven Caple Jr.’s Creed II (B) - or “Rocky VIII” as some have termed it - has a serious case of history repeating with throwbacks to the notorious Drago-Creed and Balboa-Drago fights behind the Iron Curtain. Despite following the sports series’ rather prescriptive formula, though, this entry injects some pretty heavyweight domestic drama into the
- ["The Wife" a Solid Showcase for Glenn Close](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-wife-2018/) - Best known for one of the showiest portrayals of rage set to cinema (pet rabbits beware Alex’s Fatal Attraction!), Glenn Close gets to take a slow-burn turn as doting spouse with a secret in the sleeper character study film that may finally land her a deserved Academy Award. Björn Runge’s austere drama The Wife (B-),
- ["Ralph Wrecks the Internet" a Sloppy Sequel](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-ralph-wrecks-the-internet/) - Life’s a glitch for the best friends from the ‘80s arcade as they venture out into the worldwide web in Rich Moore and Phil Johnston’s uneven computer generated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet (C). The great leap from the first film's nostalgia fueled highjinks into the swirl of modernity is fraught with glaring shifts in
- ["The Favourite" a Mixed Bag with Strong Performances](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-favourite-2018/) - Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite (C+) is a bawdy tale of women behaving very badly, set in early 18th century Britain under the reign of Queen Anne, and its fine acting and perversely wicked sense of humor against the backdrop of a royal costume drama are not enough to recommend it. Rachel Weisz is delicious as
- ["Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" is Great Animated Storytelling](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse/) - There’s a whole new convention for comic book aficionados, and it arrives in the form of a brilliantly conceived and rendered animation style and congregation of fringe superheroes. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (B) is a triumph of visuals and tone, capturing comic book aesthetic and tongue in cheek
- ["Roma" Mixes the Epic and the Intimate](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-roma-2018/) - Alfonso Cuarón’s family drama set in a middle class Mexico City neighborhood in the early 1970s, Roma (B), is an elegiac tribute to his family’s real housekeeper who was a steady presence as the family slowly splintered. Told with a sweeping tableaux of intimate and epic moments, photographed in black and white 65 millimeter glory
- ["Welcome to Marwen" One of the Worst Films of 2018](https://silverscreencapture.com/review-welcome-to-marwen/) - This is a case of a director already known for playing with too many toys still trying to build a better mousetrap while the perfectly good cheese sitting right before him simply needs a more restrained pairing. Robert Zemeckis’s treacly Welcome to Marwen (D+) dramatizes events about a real-life artist who, after experiencing a traumatic
- ["Mary Poppins Returns" to a Mixed Bag](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mary-poppins-returns/) - For a physical production practically perfect as Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns (C+), its makers should have spent some tuppence on the sequel’s songs and screenwriting and provided its glum protagonist with a jolly holiday from all the topsy turvy plot contrivances. The lavish set design, resplendent costumes and meticulous vintage Disney animation are all
- ["Mary Queen of Scots" is Effective If Unsurprising](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mary-queen-of-scots-2018/) - All hail Saoirse Ronan! As the titular star of Josie Rourke’s absorbing mostly historical drama Mary Queen of Scots (B), the fierce young actress adds to her sterling repertoire of strong female roles and brings pulse pounding verve to what could have been a dull period piece. The actress is commanding and imaginative and summons
- [Chloé Zhao Shows Early Filmmaking Promise with "The Rider"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-rider-2018/) - “Cowboys ride through the pain,” says one character in Chloé Zhao’s elegiac drama The Rider (B), the story of an injured young rodeo star coming to grips with the fact that he may never get to saddle up as a hero again. Cast “off the grid” with Lakota Sioux of the Pine Ridge Reservation in
- [Eastwood's "The Mule" an Engrossing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-mule-2018/) - Although there’s nary a line as memorable as Gran Torino’s “Get off my lawn!” this time around, Clint Eastwood’s The Mule (B+) continues the actor/auteur’s loving curmudgeonly entreaty to the next generation to be kind to people even when the words coming from your mouth fail to express it, to take time for those you
- ["On the Basis of Sex" Shows What Made RBG Subversively Notorious](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-on-the-basis-of-sex/) - Mimi Leder’s On the Basis of Sex (B) takes a page out of the Spielberg Lincoln playbook by telling the story of a pivotal player in American life through the lens of a single subplot that succinctly illuminates an individual’s singular belief system. In this new movie, that person is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
- ["Aquaman" Parts No Seas In Terms of Storytelling Success](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-aquaman/) - The DC universe’s fishing expedition for a worthwhile film remains an ongoing upstream journey. James Wan’s foray into surf and turf sci-fi fantasy Aquaman (C+) has all the subtlety of a Super Bowl commercial, with either a tidal wave of action as bait or a dreamboat dilf as its siren call to adult moviegoers over
- ["Bird Box" is Sometimes Bird Brained](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-bird-box/) - You may want to cover your eyes and frankly shut down all of your senses for Sandra Bullock’s overhyped dystopian suspense film playing exclusively on Netflix. Susanne Bier’s Bird Box (C) follows Bullock’s heroine who, along with a pair of precious children, embarks on an adventure through the woods and down a river blindfolded to
- [2018 Georgia Film Critics Picks](https://silverscreencapture.com/georgia-film-critics-association-award-nominations/) - The Georgia Film Critics Association (GAFCA) has announced its slate of nominees for the 2018 GAFCA Awards. Founded in 2011, this year marks the 8th annual awards program for the critics group. GAFCA is made up of 32 film critics from around the state, representing print, television, radio and online media. Nominations in all 17
- ["Vice" is an Acting Showcase in Divided Political Times](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-vice-2018/) - Adam McKay’s genre-hopping Vice (B) is a distant cousin to Oliver Stone’s similarly dark comedic Natural Born Killers, admirable for creative storytelling about issues ripped out of the headlines but a bit confounding in what it’s intending to explore about its caricatures. Christian Bale is as good as you’ve heard brilliantly inhabiting the enigmatic role of
- ["Glass" is More Great Content in "Eastrail 177" Trilogy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-glass-2019/) - M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass (B) could also be called Superhero Erased as the always fascinating Sarah Paulson plays a conversion therapist to humans who believe they have superpowers. She turns her attention to a trio introduced in two films now considered the opening salvos of the “Eastrail 177 Trilogy”: Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), The
- [Reviews of 2018 Oscar Best Picture Nominees](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-reviews-of-best-picture-nominees/) - Today's clickable picks for the eight Academy Award nominees for Best Picture are the following: Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book A Star Is Born Roma Vice
- ["The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part" Stacks Story with More Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/lego-movie-2/) - Constructing a clever comedy requires a lot of bright component parts, and I suppose even Henrik Ibsen would marvel at the master builders behind this month’s blockbuster sequel! Veteran animator Mike Mitchell’s The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (B+), wisely written by the original film’s writer/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is a deft
- ["Friedkin Uncut" Showcases a Master Director](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-friedkin-uncut/) - Acclaimed and criminally under-appreciated motion picture director William Friedkin is known for the gritty near-documentary reality he imbues in projects such as The Exorcist, The French Connection, Sorcerer, Cruising and Bug, so it’s fun to witness the man behind the movies sounding off about his approach. Francesco Zippel‘s Friedkin Uncut (B) stitches together interviews with
- [Oscar Predictions - 2019 Telecast](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-oscars-this-sunday/) - Get ready for the biggest party in Hollywood—The Academy Awards telecast is Sunday, February 24, 2019 at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. For many of us, the best part of the evening is pre-gaming to red carpet arrivals (E! Entertainment is the place for stargazing). Be on the lookout for fashion plates like nominees Emma
- ["Captain Marvel" an Enjoyable Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-captain-marvel/) - Here’s a heroic hot take: It took 21 Marvel Cinematic Universe films for the creators to accomplish the hat trick of making it all not look so damn hard. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s easy, breezy entertainment Captain Marvel (B+) places its plum protagonist in a hybrid mystery/prequel set in the ‘90s, and it reveals
- ["Shazam!" is Great Superhero Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-shazam/) - A fun hybrid of Big and The Goonies, the DC Universe gets a lively dose of life and levity with the introduction of David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! (B). The film’s teen protagonist is grappling with new powers which cause him to toggle back and forth between awkward adolescence and transforming into a full-fledged adult superhero
- ["Avengers: Endgame" Provides Gravitas to Superhero Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-avengers-endgame/) - Joe and Anthony Russo’s sprawling and satisfying superhero ensemble Avengers: Endgame (B+) is likely the most emotional of the Marvel series. It comes after the previous film’s conceit of killing off half the world’s population, and much of this installment addresses how people grieve and marshal the will to move forward. Two favorite characters have
- [Don't Try to Find "Pokémon Detective Pikachu"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-pokemon-detective-pikachu/) - The bar is set low for movies based on video games, and Rob Letterman’s Pokémon Detective Pikachu (D+) lurks right below that threshold. Justice Smith is a bit adrift as an insurance agent who lost his estranged father in a mysterious accident near a lab on the outskirts of a utopia where humans and Pokémon
- ["John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" Provides More Action Spectacle](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-john-wick-chapter-3-parabellum/) - Bring on the ballet of bombast! Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (B-) delivers more of what fans desire – the stoic Keanu Reeves as the titular retired hit man now with quite a bounty on his head, brutally graphic action sequences and elaborate fights and stunts staged against epic and ultra-cool set
- [Roger and Theron are Funny in Political Comedy "Long Shot"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-long-shot-2019/) - Jonathan Levine’s comedy set in the high stakes world of international diplomacy, Long Shot (B+), is equal parts shock and aw-shucks. Its central odd couple pairing is a meeting of hive minds and makes a wry statement about not always playing it safe, even in love and politics. Charlize Theron’s character is living in the
- [Preview of 2019 Summer Movies](https://silverscreencapture.com/preview-summer-movies-2019/) - Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story? The Russo Brothers have the top-secret answers to the world’s biggest superhero cliffhanger as summer movie season unofficially opened in late April with their epic Avengers: Endgame. Expect variety to be a spice of life more potent than popcorn salt at the multiplex this summer with superheroes,
- [Live-Action 2019 "Aladdin" Adds Some Shining, Shimmering New Touches](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-aladdin-2019/) - While the studio that pioneered 2-D animation has evidently put that art form on ice, Disney has adapted its golden age cartoon musicals into Broadway shows and transformed them back into hybrid “revisal” live action movies to mixed effect. What was vintage or even moribund is now cryogenically reawakened as both blatant cash grab and opportunity
- ["Booksmart" is Sassy and Sometimes Funny](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-booksmart/) - Imagine finding out that single-minded discipline in high school yielded no more success than that of the the cool kids who also partied all four years. That’s the premise of first time director Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (B), one of those very sweet films wrapped in the package of a vulgar comedy, in which its central
- ["Rocketman" a Solid Musical Ode to Elton John](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-rocketman-2019/) - Dexter Fletcher is the director who finished filming Bohemian Rhapsody after its filmmaker was dismissed and further flexes his love of musical storytelling in the Elton John biopic Rocketman (B-), a motion picture whose blissed-out protagonist is rather hard to get to know, even after a whole film about his life has unspooled. Taron Egerton
- ["Dark Phoenix" a Dismal Entry into X-Men Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-dark-phoenix-2019/) - If you’re seeking a summer chore to catch up on, look no further than Simon Kinberg’s Dark Phoenix (C-), the twelfth and promised final film in 20th Century Fox’s Marvel X-Men series. It is a touch below average in nearly every respect, bringing back some familiar characters from the prequel-era timeline (thank goodness for Michael
- ["Ma" a Guilty Pleasure Horror Show](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-ma-2019/) - There's more pleasure than guilt in enjoying this guilty pleasure as director Tate Taylor collaborates with Octavia Spencer, his muse from The Help, for a memorable, against-type, unhinged performance in the psychological thriller Ma (B). When a lonely veterinary assistant starts opening her basement to a quartet of partying teens, it becomes clear something sinister
- ["Late Night" Has Great Insights Into Late-Night Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-late-night-2019/) - Nisha Ganatra’s topical dramedy Late Night (B) is a splendid showcase for outstanding performances by Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, a gifted comedic actress who also wrote the deeply observant screenplay. Thompson portrays a fictional long-running television show host (think Jay Leno by way of Ellen DeGeneres by way of The Devil Wears Prada), and
- ["Toy Story 4" Demonstrates There's Still Life in Family Franchise](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-toy-story-4/) - Welcome to playland purgatory as Woody and his island of misfit toys ponder the post-Andy afterlife. Josh Cooley's Toy Story 4 (B+) explores what lies beyond for the playthings of yesteryear as their very reason for being - the owner who needed them for years - fades to a distant memory. The characters must heed
- ["Yesterday" Imagines Life Without Musical Icons](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-yesterday-2019/) - Have you ever had that tense dream when you show up for a final exam but missed the entire preceding semester of study? Or you appear on a stage to perform in a play but never memorized the script or blocking? Sure, you can get by with a little help from your friends, but your
- ["Blinded by the Light" an Enjoyable Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-blinded-by-the-light-2019/) - Some things that don’t seem to naturally go together can create nice harmony, like the frustrated Muslim teen in rural Thatcherite England and his newfound muse, working-class American rocker Bruce Springsteen. Having played in a similar milieu with a girl who wants to bend it like her soccer hero, Gurinder Chadha crafts her latest coming
- ["Midsommar" an Intriguing Horror Premise](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-midsommar-2019/) - The venerable Burning Man Festival has nothing on the art house stylings of Ari Aster’s Midsommar (B-), in which a group of Americans including Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor and Will Poulter visit the fictional Swedish commune of Hårga for what detours into the realms of hallucinogenic revenge fantasy. This curiosity, buoyed by eat/prey/love storyline stanzas,
- ["Spider-Man: Far From Home" Great Summer Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-spider-man-far-from-home/) - Director Jon Watts follows up his Marvel Universe reboot of the web-slinging series with the returning, utterly charming Tom Holland conveying convincing spectacle in the title role of Spider-Man: Far from Home (B), a worthy but overly busy Spidey sequel. This installment finds our hero mourning the loss of a fellow superhero while juggling a
- [Live-Action "Lion King" Moves from Pride Rock to Uncanny Valley](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-lion-king-2019/) - Disney's Mouse House has found a way to corral more currency out of Casa Mufasa and despite critical carping blowing across the savanna will likely have hakuna mutata (no worries!) about doing so. Jon Favreau’s remake of The Lion King (C-) is a largely joyless and superfluous affair, replacing traditional line drawing with a photo-realistic
- ["Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood" is a Mixed Bag But Still Vintage Tarantino](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood/) - One of the film industry’s most notorious writer/directors slows his roll into leisurely paced comedy and doesn’t quite succeed until things get violent. He’s clearly better at the Spaghetti Western than The Decline of Western Civilization. Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (B-) explores how movie stars are always one step away from their
- ["The Farewell" a Lovely Ode to Family](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-farewell-2019/) - For a movie about looming death, Lulu Wang's The Farewell (A) is a surprisingly joyous work. Her understated film is a near note-perfect glimpse at family dynamics as ordinary individuals endeavor to unravel the responsibilities of adulthood while confronting cultural dynamics in flux. Aspiring Chinese-American writer Billi, deftly played by Awkwafina, visits her Nai Nai
- ["It Chapter Two" is Redundant, Unscary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-it-chapter-two/) - All the clamor over the hush of forbidden, guilty secrets really puts the SH... in this IT. Andy Muschietti's bloated follow-up to his adaptation of the childhood passages of Stephen King's nostalgic ode to overcoming what scares you is overlong, not remotely frightening, full of half-baked creature effects, sloppily paced and only occasionally charming due
- ["Peanut Butter Falcon" is a Delight](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-peanut-butter-falcon/) - A feel-good odyssey in the milieu of a Mark Twain tale, Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz’s Peanut Butter Falcon (B+) wins over cynics with career-best performances from two young actors and an introduction to another indelible character plus an easygoing and authentic sense of human adventure. After escaping a residential nursing home to pursue his
- ["Hustlers" is One of 2019's Most Surprising Dramas](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-hustlers-2019/) - The true wolves of Wall Street have arrived, and they’re adorned with bling and chinchilla. The latest addition into the hall of fame of superb real-life crime dramas is Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers (B+), buoyed by outstanding performances from Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez as exotic dancers who devise a scam to drain the credit cards
- ["Judy" Tells Gardand's Story with Grace Notes](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-judy-2019/) - There’s no place like home on a stage as a fantasy respite from a troubled life. Rupert Goold's Judy (B) is the anticipated biopic with Renée Zellweger playing actress/ songstress Judy Garland in the fading fog of a salvage effort for money and maternal rights while in residency at a London concert hall. The story
- ["Joker" is Off-Kilter and Amazing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-joker-2019/) - This is the ultimate story of “the other.” Todd Phillips’s Joker (A-) flips the script in what is ostensibly an original origin story about one of Batman’s most notorious villains. Masterfully played by Joaquin Phoenix, the titular antihero fashions a fascinating and occasionally heartbreaking portrait of a desperate and marginalized loner. The bleak period atmosphere of
- ["Harriet" an Intense Historical Biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-harriet/) - Director Kasi Lemmons crafts an exquisite glimpse at American hero Harriet Tubman in the historical epic Harriet (B+) about the successful "conductor" on the Underground Railroad who escapes slavery in Maryland and helps others on an exodus to Philadelphia freedom. Cynthia Ervio is perfect in the title role and displays her character's faith and fearlessness
- ["The Lighthouse" Plays Great Games with Your Mind](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-lighthouse-2019/) - This hypnotic, hallucinatory horror-type tall tale is a keeper for sure! Director Robert Eggers casts an absolutely enchanting and unsettling spell in the gothic black and white square aspect ratio wonder The Lighthouse (A-). Set on a mysterious New England island in the 1890s, a career-redefining Robert Pattinson joins a startlingly gifted Willem Dafoe in
- ["Doctor Sleep" May Help You Do Just That](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-doctor-sleep/) - All talk and little action makes Danny Torrance a dull boy in an altogether unnecessary sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining. Mike Flanagan’s unsatisfactory take on the novelist’s Doctor Sleep (D) catches up with that terrorized tricycle "red-rum" humming kid who has grown up into a Ewan McGregor whose American accent
- ["The Laundromat" is Well Meaning But Messy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-laundromat-2019/) - The star-studded disaster movie genre born in the ‘70s has been replaced by all-star dramas focused on societal ills, with the likes of Crash, Babel, Requiem for a Dream, The Big Short and Traffic paving the way for a film about money laundering, bribery and corruption. Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat (C) tells an arch and
- ["A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" Dramatizes TV Icon](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-a-beautiful-day-in-the-neighborhood/) - Not since Dr. Lecter coerced Clarice Starling to confront her deep rooted fears has a movie character so successfully invaded the human psyche. Come hell or high puppet, this engrossing supporting character is going to get in your head. A tale of a life transformed by iconic child advocate Fred Rogers, Marielle Heller’s sentimental, sensational
- ["Frozen 2" Falters](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-frozen-2-2019/) - Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee’s Frozen 2 (C-) features lovely animation of an autumnal enchanted forest, but the most prominent lingering act of nature from the film is that of treading water. Unlike the first film’s brisk telling of a fairy tale anchored by sisterly love and icy ditties, the sequel meanders into a hodgepodge
- ["Ford v Ferrari" is Fabulous](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-ford-v-ferrari/) - James Mangold’s ‘60s-set Ford v Ferrari (A) is a triumph, precision tuned with grit and grace and a combination of spectacular acting and “how did they do that?” practical action effects. Matt Damon and Christian Bale punch up everything fueling their winning screen personalities as the real-life racing team tilting at windmills to help America’s
- [Star-Studded "Knives Out" Revives the Whodunit](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-knives-out/) - If writer/director Rian Johnson prepared your holiday turkey, it would be overstuffed, but the cinematic chef gleefully loads up his wily whodunit Knives Out (B) with impeccable ingredients: a cavalcade of sassy stars, a labyrinthine manor, cunning clues, red herrings, mousetraps and sinewy twists. A spry Daniel Craig (with a vexing Foghorn Leghorn accent) and
- ["Dolemite Is My Name" Gets Comedy and Period Detail Right](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-dolemite-is-my-name-2019/) - Craig Brewer’s Dolemite Is My Name (B+) is a joyous examination of creating unconventional film art and in the vulgar verses and syncopation of its titular rhyming cinematic pimp may just showcase the origins of rap music too. Eddie Murphy as standup comedian turned Blaxploitation movie icon Rudy Ray Moore and Wesley Snipes as D’Urville
- [Scorsese's "The Irishman" an Uneven But Engrossing Opus](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-irishman/) - It’s one more bravura trip to the underworld for Martin Scorsese’s requiem repertory of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel plus first-time collaborator Al Pacino. The Irishman, a.k.a. I Heard You Paint Houses (B+) chronicles nearly six decades in the life of De Niro’s stoic WWII veteran character, an Emerald Isle descendent who
- ["Marriage Story" is Blissfully Dour](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-marriage-story-2019/) - Even though it chronicles the sad tale of the breakdown of a marriage, Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story (A) is bittersweet bliss. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson give career-best performances as the couple in the story's center, a director and his actress muse, respectively, who find themselves separated by an emotional gulf and soon a geographic
- ["Waves" an Absorbing Modern Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-waves-2019/) - Waves (B), written and directed with a whirling dervish ferocity by Trey Edward Shults, tells an epic story of a contemporary Floridian family experiencing a variety of trials on a journey to redemption and recovery. While ultimately hopeful, it careens head-first into a Requiem for a Dream level fever pitch for some time before transitioning
- ["Richard Jewell" an Engrossing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-richard-jewell/) - The revelatory performance of Paul Walter Hauser as the mild-mannered titular character of Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell (B) is the primary draw of the historical procedural movie. While the director plays a bit loose with the story elements surrounding the man wrongfully accused of masterminding the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Eastwood successfully conjures
- ["Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" an Uneven Third Trilogy Conclusion](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-2019/) - J.J. Abrams returns to the helm for the final entry of the legendary Jedi v Sith sequel cycle, Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (B), a populist pretzel twisting space and time to conclude a myriad of loose plot points while pouring on salty nostalgia in generous doses. This space opera saga finale
- [The One Charitable Review of the Movie "Cats" You Will Find on the Internet](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-cats-2019/) - Stephen Michael Brown of the Silver Screen Capture website gives the movie "Cats" its one charitable review. Find it here, along with some feline wordplay.
- ["The Two Popes" an Engrossing Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-two-popes/) - Two master actors chew the Sistine scenery in the often insightful, sometimes humorous The Two Popes (B), directed by Fernando Meirelles. Anthony Hopkins plays Pope Benedict, making the stunning decision of recanting his papacy, and Jonathan Pryce portrays the future Pope Francis, visiting Vatican City and Benedict’s summer home in a moment of crisis for
- [Greta Gerwig Puts Iconic Stamp on Classic with 2019 "Little Women"](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-little-women-2019/) - Filled with autumnal beauty, radiant performances, fierce dialogue and timeless themes, writer/director Greta Gerwig's Little Women (A) breaks through the barriers of the work's familiarity to speak an empowering message to modern moviegoers about truly heeding one's instincts. This is the eighth adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's coming-of-age novel written more than a century and
- ["Bombshell" Features Strong Actresses](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-bombshell-2019/) - One of the best examples of investigative journalism at Fox News was actually the investigation of the journalist organization itself, as chronicled in Jay Roach’s ripped-from-the-headlines sexual harassment drama Bombshell (B). Charlize Theron brilliantly channels alpha anchor Megyn Kelly, who follows the disturbing trail of manipulative behavior by the news network’s top brass (a terrifying
- [Gozo "Uncut Gems" Will Get in Your Head](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-uncut-gems/) - Josh and Benny Safdie’s new verité thriller should come with a warning label that it will most assuredly produce anxiety in its audience. It is both a blessing and a curse that these sibling writer/directors fill every mise-en-scène of the paranoid action drama Uncut Gems (B) with such realistic and resounding cinematic finesse. This potboiler
- ["1917" is a Gripping War Film in Near Real Time](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-1917-2019/) - The World War I film 1917 (B+), directed by Sam Mendes and photographed by Roger Deakins, relies on an enormously effective and immersive magic trick of appearing like one continuous camera take, achieved with a mix of practical action and digital sleight of hand. It’s an incredible adventure spectacular even though the parade of set
- [2019 Best Picture Nominees](https://silverscreencapture.com/industry-news-oscars-2020-best-picture-nominees/) - Here are my reviews of the nine 2019 Best Picture candidates. The ceremony is February 9, 2020. Ford v Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story 1917 Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood Parasite
- ["General Magic" a Gripping Tech Documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-general-magic/) - Fear of failure and unwarranted confidence can both be blinding. The ‘90s Silicon Valley dreamers in Matt Maude and Sarah Kerruish’s cautionary and ultimately redemptive documentary General Magic (B+) are enjoyable subjects inventing technologies well before their time. While the denizens of the titular start-up saw their promising platform go up in smoke, they learned
- ["Birds of Prey" a Largely Fun Harley Quinn Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-birds-of-prey-and-the-fantabulous-emancipation-of-one-harley-quinn/) - Cathy Yan's bubblegum-hued crime saga Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (B-) is another origin story in the DC Extended Universe and follows Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn as she joins forces with Jurnee Smollett-Bell’s Black Canary and several vigilantes to fight Gotham City crime lord Black Mask, played by Ewan
- [Awesome Documentary "Miss Americana" Shows the Shift of Swift](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-miss-americana-2020/) - Lana Wilson’s Miss Americana (B) is an enjoyable biographical documentary showcasing several years in the life of crossover country/pop music artist Taylor Swift, especially during her personal awakening into political action. The film vividly shows Swift's rise to fame and thirst for validation as a people pleaser given energy by audiences and record sales. So
- ["What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael" a Great Movie Critic Doc](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-what-she-said-the-art-of-pauline-kael-2019/) - Wielding an encouraging epistle or a poison pen whittled down to the quick, caustic cinematic commentator Pauline Kael was America’s first and most influential metacritic. Two decades after the loss of this iconoclast, Rob Garver's What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael (B+) showcases this writer’s startling ability to convince readers to see movies
- [2020 "Invisible Man" is a Fun Pre-Pandemic Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-invisible-man-2020/) - The audacity of a far-fetched plot in the latest remake of The Invisible Man (B) all but vanishes under the steady direction of Leigh Whannell and spellbinding central performance of Elisabeth Moss. The H.G. Wells story and classic films have been modernized with a strong woman at the center and a streamlined narrative about recovering
- ["I Still Believe" Doesn't Quite Sing](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-i-still-believe-2020/) - The Erwin Brothers create faith-based movies filled with inspiration and hope. And while their latest Christian-centric biography based on a chapter in the life of worship musician Jeremy Camp, I Still Believe (C), accomplishes its goal of showcasing a moving real-life romance forged against the odds, it largely misses the mark in terms of originality
- ["Onward" is Fun for the Family](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-onward/) - Times of quarantine can benefit from a little elf help, as a major animated theatrical release careens quickly to the home screen with video-on-demand and Disney+ providing a safe social distanced landing. Dan Scanlon’s Onward (B-) is mid-tier Pixar, no doubt, filled with fanciful frames of kid-friendly highjinks before culminating in the emotional payoffs adults
- ["Surviving the Silence" a Wonderful Documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-surviving-the-silence-2020/) - Behind the anti-gay military policy resulting in the dismissal of lesbian army hero Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer (famously portrayed by Glenn Close in the 1995 movie Serving in Silence), a clandestine couple -- a veritable female Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a real-life saga - provides the fascinating side story that propels its way to center stage
- ["Shithouse" is a Hidden Gem of a Coming of Age Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-shithouse-2020/) - The first year of college can feel like you’re on the verge of something amazing or the brink of tears, and for the homesick protagonist of the breakout 2020 South by Southwest film Shithouse (aka Freshman Year) (A-), it’s a vulnerable journey from mope to hope. Cooper Raif is writer, director and star of this
- [Sleeper Story "Giant Little Ones" Has Optimistic Outlook](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-giant-little-ones/) - This is the movie for the "no labels" generation. Keith Behrman's Giant Little Ones (B+) eschews many typical coming of age conventions to chronicle a few weeks in the life of a teenage protagonist (Josh Wiggins, a thoughtful performer and dead ringer for a young Matt Damon) caught between a variety of impulses in the
- ["Portrait of a Lady on Fire" is Out of This World](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-portrait-de-la-jeune-fille-en-feu/) - This is one of the great romances. Writer/director Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (A+) is a French historical drama tracing the contours and the canvas of an enduring love. Set in France in the late 18th century, this masterwork obeys the conventions of period romances
- [2020's "Bad Education" is a Gripping Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-bad-education-2020/) - A new HBO film throws the book at a public school scandal but takes a little while to get to its thesis. Cory Finley’s Bad Education (B-) tells the true 2002 story of a corrupt Long Island village school superintendent responsible for the sector’s largest embezzlement in U.S. history. In this central role, Hugh Jackman plays
- ["Lovebirds" a Lot of Fun](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-lovebirds-2020/) - Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani have such spectacular comic and romantic chemistry as the central couple in Michael Showalter’s The Lovebirds (B-) that they deserve a better movie next time they collaborate. It’s clear even in the cold open introductory credits that this brilliant duo possesses charisma in spades with hilarious banter and priceless reactions. The plot
- [Spike Lee's "Da 5 Bloods" an Acting Showcase](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-da-5-bloods/) - Hollywood has a history of journeying down Vietnam’s rivers and through its jungles to heal the heartbreak shrouded in the ruins of war. Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods (B) starts innocently enough with a quartet of affable modern-day African-American veterans reuniting in a Ho Chi Minh City hotel to embark on a search for the
- ["Artemis Fowl" a Wretched Mess](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-artemis-fowl/) - Worse than modern Disney flops Tomorrowland, BFG and A Wrinkle in Time combined, Kenneth Branagh’s Ireland-set Artemis Fowl (F) is an unmitigated disaster, a hopeful tentpole blockbuster and young adult franchise starter completely devoid of magic and wonder. Banished to the phantom zone of a Disney+ debut after COVID-19 shuffled the studio’s theatrical releases, this
- ["King of Staten Island" Has Its Moments](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-king-of-staten-island/) - Sometimes DIY extends to people, and this latest twist on the Jerry Maguire archetype doesn’t give its prickly prince too far to rise to get out of his rut and assume his comic crown. Judd Apatow’s dramedy The King of Staten Island (B-) is a splendid showcase for slacker comedian Pete Davidson, who plays a
- ["John Lewis: Good Trouble" Tells of Political Pioneer](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-john-lewis-good-trouble-2020/) - Summer finally has a superhero. Using interviews and rare archival footage, Dawn Porter’s documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble (B+) traces the titular congressman’s 60-plus years of social activism and legislative action on issues ranging from civil and voting rights to healthcare and immigration reform. It’s a delight to watch the political and protest survivor witness
- ["Guest of Honour" a Lesser Work by Provocative Atom Egoyan](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-guest-of-honour-2020/) - Writer/director Atom Egoyan continues his lifelong exploration of themes of isolation and alienation via two vivid characters in a new memory story. Restaurant inspector Jim (an exacting and austere David Thewlis) and his daughter Veronica (intriguing Laysla De Oliveira), a music teacher, attempt to unravel their complex histories and intertwined secrets in Guest of Honour
- ["The Old Guard" Offers Action Surprises](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-old-guard-2020/) - For those who believe “there can be only one” in immortals movies (thanks, Highlander!), a new super-heroic quintet has arrived to demonstrate that long-living mercenaries come in multiples. These world-weary soldiers of particular fortune with powers including regenerative healing abilities get spectacular spotlight in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Old Guard (B+), a successful new action/fantasy film
- ["Palm Springs" a Giddy Comedy Surprise](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-palm-springs-2020/) - It’s a merry, merry multiverse for a trio trapped in a time loop in Max Barbakow’s Palm Springs (B+). This comedy with shades of Groundhog Day triples the number of people caught in the act of living the same day over and over with Andy Samberg and Christin Milioti as two charming strangers who meet
- ["Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies" Sure to Get Some Attenton](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-skin-a-history-of-nudity-in-the-movies-2020/) - Danny Wolf's Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (B) is revealing in all the right ways. Tracing the history of celluloid flesh from silent films to contemporary cinema, this fairly clinical documentary includes talking heads and feisty film footage to explore the mores of over a century in titillating taste when it comes
- ["Howard" a Heartwarming Documentary About Disney Legend](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-howard-2020/) - An old axiom proclaims a feature film shouldn’t be less interesting than its makers sitting around discussing that very movie, but the reverse holds true for documentaries. Serviceable when it should be sensational, Don Hahn’s film about the life and word craft of Disney legend Howard Ashman, Howard (B-), strings very few pieces of found
- ["Yes, God, Yes" is Clever Coming of Age Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-yes-god-yes/) - This movie is quite observant about what it means to be an American teen, down to the chapter and verse. Director Karen Maine's Yes, God, Yes (B) is a sensitive coming of age dramedy about reconciling church teachings and teenage urges with a breakout performance by Natalia Dyer of the sci-fi TV show Stranger Things.
- ["Burnt Orange Heresy" Best Left Unwatched](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-burnt-orange-heresy-2020/) - Sometimes we search for meaning in art where there is actually very little to mine, and often we give a story more patience than it deserves. Giuseppe Capotondi's neo-noirish drama The Burnt Orange Heresy (C+) features some idiosyncratic performances and a stylish milieu but doesn’t successfully integrate its intriguing elements before culminating in a corker
- ["Bill and Ted Face the Music" Doesn't Really Work](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-bill-and-ted-face-the-music-2020/) - Nearly three decades after their last time trek, they’re on a mission to prove they’re dad bod-acious, but their bid for bogus bonafides exhumes a most triumphantly tepid detour. Dean Parisot's Bill and Ted Face the Music (C) is best when it just gives in to absurdist metaphysical humor, and there are indeed a few
- ["New Mutants" Proves Why It's Been on the Shelf](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-new-mutants-2020/) - One flew over the vulture’s nest of scavenged characters, themes and effects in the long shelved X-Men universe spinoff exhumed for theatrical release during uncertain times, Josh Boone’s The New Mutants (C-). In a clinical facility, a quintet of teens are observed by Alice Braga’s one-woman headmaster/clinician and must battle metaphorical and literal demons while
- [Time-Twisting "Tenet" is an Action Banger](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-tenet-2020/) - A generation of future physicists will one day point to Christopher Nolan's labyrinthine leviathan of a movie Tenet (A-) as inspiration for scientific study. An international espionage thriller with the director’s signature flourish of temporal mystery, this movie is epic and and presents puzzles within riddles in a plot near impossible to diagram. Although some
- ["Personal History of David Copperfield" is Often Charming](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-personal-history-of-david-copperfield-2020/) - Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield (B) is the anti-Masterpiece Theater take on the autobiographical Charles Dickens classic, and it’s a delightful ode to harnessing one’s creative impulses. It’s not as breezy a bildungsroman as last year’s Little Women remix, but it has significant whimsical charms. The director, a noted acerbic satirist, tells
- [Live Action "Mulan" a Chore](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-mulan-2020/) - Niki Caro’s live-action remake of Mulan (B-) doesn’t really sing. Literally she doesn’t sing, but she sure does swing. The movie’s sometimes successful blend of swordsmanship, bow’s eye war sequences, wuxia-style fight choreography and awkwardly imprinted progressive values juxtaposed against Chinese tradition all serve to stack this new take on the Disney classic. The simple
- ["Unapologetic" Captures Zeitgeist of Social Justice Movement](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-unapologetic-2020/) - Two young Black women activists grow in grassroots glory in Ashley O’Shay’s timely and prescient documentary Unapologetic (A). Confronting injustice and unrest in Chicago’s Westside and exploring the rise of resistance from prominent provocateurs in the Black, queer, feminist community, the skilled director presents with urgency and sensitivity a you-are-there multi-year story about a duo
- ["I’m Thinking of Ending Things" Lost in its Ideas](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-im-thinking-of-ending-things-2020/) - Someone is slowly going mad, and it starts to feel like an audience having its patience tried. Writer/director Charlie Kaufman’s snow-tinged four-hander psychological drama I’m Thinking of Ending Things (C) is one of those slow simmer stories in which most of what happens doesn’t make much sense until the final act, and not even completely then. Jessie
- ["Broken Hearts Gallery" an Unexpected Gem](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-broken-hearts-gallery-2020/) - It’s fitting this curiosity is screening in sparsely attended auditoriums during a pandemic, and yet its appealing cast and quirky dialogue manage to light up and fill up a room. A ragtag romance lined with lost and found objects, Natalie Krinsky’s The Broken Hearts Gallery (B-) is an optimistic and often ebullient experience with an
- ["Enola Holmes" is Clever Junior Mystery](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-enola-holmes-2020/) - This plucky, picturesque new family movie is both elementary and dear. Millie Bobby Brown is superb in the titular role of teen detective little sister of Sherlock in Harry Bradbeer’s Enola Holmes (B), and much of the Victorian Era young adult adaptation story rises to the level of its protagonist’s wit and intelligence. Bradbeer fills
- [Lackluster "Trial of the Chicago 7" Has Little to Say](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-the-trial-of-the-chicago-7/) - Writer/director Aaron Sorkin starts off and ends The Trial of the Chicago 7 (C) capably even as his unremarkable filmmaking style and pacing rarely meet the might of his prose about rabble-rousers caught up in history and a civics lesson with modern undertones. A saccharine Eddie Redmayne as Tom Hayden, one of the founders of
- ["David Byrne’s American Utopia" a Musical Triumph](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-david-byrnes-american-utopia/) - Spike Lee’s concert movie David Byrne’s American Utopia (A) is an often absurdist, sometimes poignant and always joyfully ebullient work featuring twelve troubadours on a Broadway stage making music seemingly ripped from the soul of the here and now. The idiosyncratic Talking Heads lead singer is part narrator and part conjuror in a cathartic protest
- ["Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" Has That Not-So-Fresh Feeling](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-borat-subsequent-moviefilm-delivery-of-prodigious-bribe-to-american-regime-for-make-benefit-once-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan-2020/) - The goodwill generated by one of the most manic fish out of water comedies in recent times is greatly diminished in this dead fish of a follow-up. There are few happy returns as Jason Woliner's Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (D+) sends its intrepid foreign reporter played by Sacha Baron Cohen back to America on a redemption
- ["On the Rocks" an Enjoyable Trifle](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-on-the-rocks-2020/) - Hot on the trail of a potentially cheating spouse, a woman turns to the philandering father whose extramarital affair broke up her own family, Clarice Starling/Hannibal Lecter style, in an absolute confection of a new melancholy comedy. Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks (A-) hits all the right notes with a crackling central daughter-father dynamic between
- ["Ammonite" is Surprisingly Unsexy](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-ammonite-2020/) - Scientific sources indicate director Francis Lee made a movie called Ammonite (C-) with Kate Winslet as a paleontologist who falls in love with an ailing tourist played by Saoirse Ronan on the Southern English coast in the 19th century, but fossil evidence shows little to no chemistry occurred nor did the proceedings leave much of an
- [You Can "Run" From This One](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-run-2020/) - The ambitious Aneesh Cheganty, who directed the elegant and engaging cyber-mystery Searching, loses steam in the sprint of his sophomore effort, Run (C+), a decent PG-13 starter horror movie for tweens but hardly new territory for anyone else who has seen a feature film before. The timing is pretty prescient for a lockdown thriller, but
- [I Hope Airbnb Didn't Pay for Product Plug in "Barbarian," 2022's Most Entertaining Horror Flick](https://silverscreencapture.com/movie-review-barbarian-2022/) - The infamous Bates Motel has nothing on the vacation rental home at the center of Zach Cregger’s creative horror movie Barbarian (B), where two intriguing perfect strangers played by Georgina Campbell and Bill Skarsgård ("Pennywise" of It himself, a kind of Everyman without clown makeup) find they are mysteriously both booked the same night. Somehow

## Pages

- [About this Site](https://silverscreencapture.com/review-philosophy/) - Silver Screen Capture is a news site with articles and reviews about new theatrical and streaming movies. Stephen Michael Brown is chief film critic.
- [Site Theme Song](https://silverscreencapture.com/theme-song/) - Silver Screen Capture is a news site with articles and reviews about new theatrical and streaming movies. Stephen Michael Brown is chief film critic. The Silver Screen Capture movie review site has a theme song, and it's by Michael Flynn, the lead singer of Slow Runner and also an awesome composer!
- [Contact Stephen Michael Brown](https://silverscreencapture.com/contact-stephen/) - Silver Screen Capture is a news site with articles and reviews about new theatrical and streaming movies. Stephen Michael Brown is chief film critic.

## Categories

- [Rent It Tonight](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/rent-it-tonight/)
- [1990](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1990/)
- [1991](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1991/)
- [1992](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1992/)
- [1993](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1993/)
- [1994](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1994/)
- [1995](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1995/)
- [1996](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1996/)
- [1997](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1997/)
- [1998](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1998/)
- [1999](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1999/)
- [2000](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2000/)
- [2001](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2001/)
- [2002](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2002/)
- [2003](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2003/)
- [2004](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2004/)
- [2005](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2005/)
- [2006](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2006/)
- [2007](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2007/)
- [2008](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2008/)
- [2009](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2009/)
- [2010](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2010/)
- [2011](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2011/)
- [2012](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2012/)
- [2013](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2013/)
- [2014](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2014/)
- [1988](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1988/)
- [1989](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1989/)
- [1978](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1978/)
- [1983](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1983/)
- [1987](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1987/)
- [1981](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1981/)
- [1984](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1984/)
- [1977](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1977/)
- [1980](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1980/)
- [2015](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2015/)
- [2016](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2016/)
- [Industry News](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/industry-news/)
- [1982](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1982/)
- [Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/comedy/)
- [Film noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/film-noir/)
- [2017](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2017/)
- [Feature Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/feature-story/)
- [2018](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2018/)
- [Photo Gallery](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/photo-gallery/)
- [Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/action/)
- [Star Wars](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/star-wars/)
- [2019](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2019/)
- [2020](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2020/)
- [1985](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1985/)
- [2021](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2021/)
- [Video Review](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/video-review/)
- [2022](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2022/)
- [1986](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/1986/)
- [2023](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2023/)
- [2024](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2024/)
- [2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2025/)
- [2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/category/2026/)

## Tags

- [Johnny Depp](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/johnny-depp/)
- [sci-fi](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sci-fi/)
- [Marvel](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/marvel/)
- [Captain America](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/captain-america/)
- [Biblical epic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/biblical-epic/)
- [Wes Anderson](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/wes-anderson/)
- [Animation](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/animation/)
- [Documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/documentary/)
- [Alexander Payne](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/alexander-payne/)
- [Meryl Streep](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/meryl-streep/)
- [Spike Jonze](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/spike-jonze/)
- [Best Picture Nominee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-nominee/)
- [Coen Brothers](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/coen-brothers/)
- [Martin Scorsese](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/martin-scorsese/)
- [Leonardo DiCaprio](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/leonardo-dicaprio/)
- [Fantasy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/fantasy/)
- [Middle Earth](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/middle-earth/)
- [Hidden Camera](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hidden-camera/)
- [Musical](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/musical/)
- [Foreign Language](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/foreign-language/)
- [Horror](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/horror/)
- [Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/comedy/)
- [Coming of Age](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/coming-of-age/)
- [Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/thriller/)
- [Dystopian Future](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dystopian-future/)
- [Woody Allen](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/woody-allen/)
- [Tearjerker](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/tearjerker/)
- [Historical Epic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/historical-epic/)
- [Superhero](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/superhero/)
- [Romance](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/romance/)
- [Shakespeare](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/shakespeare/)
- [Disney](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/disney/)
- [Music](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/music/)
- [Western](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/western/)
- [Zombies](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/zombies/)
- [Outer Space](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/outer-space/)
- [True Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/true-story/)
- [Adaptation](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/adaptation/)
- [Magic Realism](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/magic-realism/)
- [Revisionist Western](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/revisionist-western/)
- [Best Picture Winner](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-winner/)
- [Comic thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/comic-thriller/)
- [U.K.](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/u-k/)
- [Biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/biopic/)
- [Best Actor](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-actor/)
- [Broadway 2014](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/broadway-2014/)
- [Period drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/period-drama/)
- [Politics](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/politics/)
- [Sports comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sports-comedy/)
- [AIDS](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/aids/)
- [LGBT](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lgbt/)
- [HBO](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hbo/)
- [Ensemble](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/ensemble/)
- [Stage adaptation](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/stage-adaptation/)
- [Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/action/)
- [Disaster](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/disaster/)
- [Monster](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/monster/)
- [Adventure](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/adventure/)
- [Teen](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/teen/)
- [Novel adaptation](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/novel-adaptation/)
- [Sequel](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sequel/)
- [Dark comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dark-comedy/)
- [Video on Demand](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/video-on-demand/)
- [French language](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/french-language/)
- [Roman Polanski](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/roman-polanski/)
- [Rom com](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/rom-com/)
- [Time travel](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/time-travel/)
- [UK](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/uk/)
- [War film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/war-film/)
- [WWII](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/wwii/)
- [Musical drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/musical-drama/)
- [Book adaptation](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/book-adaptation/)
- [Worst superhero movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/worst-superhero-movie/)
- [Backstage drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/backstage-drama/)
- [Romantic Comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/romantic-comedy/)
- [Remake](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/remake/)
- [Family film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/family-film/)
- [Crime drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/crime-drama/)
- [Sports](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sports/)
- [Film noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/film-noir/)
- [Golden Globe](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/golden-globe/)
- [Historical drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/historical-drama/)
- [2014 Best Picture Nominee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2014-best-picture-nominee/)
- [Hollywood](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hollywood/)
- [Noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/noir/)
- [GBLT](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/gblt/)
- [British film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/british-film/)
- [LBGT](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lbgt/)
- [Atlanta Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-film-festival/)
- [Cars](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cars/)
- [Stunts](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/stunts/)
- [Suspense](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/suspense/)
- [Pixar](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/pixar/)
- [Mystery](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/mystery/)
- [Spy Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/spy-thriller/)
- [Road Trip](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/road-trip/)
- [Family](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/family/)
- [Social commentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/social-commentary/)
- [Drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/drama/)
- [Erotic thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/erotic-thriller/)
- [Tom Hanks](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/tom-hanks/)
- [Golden Globe Nominee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/golden-globe-nominee/)
- [Reboot](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/reboot/)
- [Dolby Atmos](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dolby-atmos/)
- [Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/film-festival/)
- [Animated](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/animated/)
- [Batman](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/batman/)
- [Indiana Jones](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/indiana-jones/)
- [Biblical](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/biblical/)
- [2004 Best Picture](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2004-best-picture/)
- [Best Picture 2002](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-2002/)
- [Best Picture 1999](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1999/)
- [War Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/war-movie/)
- [Best Picture 1997](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1997/)
- [Mockumentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/mockumentary/)
- [Animals](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/animals/)
- [Import](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/import/)
- [Muscial](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/muscial/)
- [Best Picture 1996](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1996/)
- [Epic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/epic/)
- [Best Picture 1995](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1995/)
- [Vampires](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/vampires/)
- [Best Picture 1994](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1994/)
- [Best Picture 1993](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1993/)
- [Political](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/political/)
- [Best Picture 1991](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-1991/)
- [Rocky](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/rocky/)
- [Rap](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/rap/)
- [Jurassic Park](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/jurassic-park/)
- [Best Picture 2014](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-2014/)
- [Food](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/food/)
- [Courtroom drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/courtroom-drama/)
- [Star Wars](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/star-wars/)
- [Hunger Games](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hunger-games/)
- [70 Millimeter](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/70-millimeter/)
- [Message movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/message-movie/)
- [Spring 2016 Awards Bait](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/spring-2016-awards-bait/)
- [Superman](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/superman/)
- [2016 Producers Guild Nominee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2016-producers-guild-nominee/)
- [Golden Globe Winner 2016](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/golden-globe-winner-2016/)
- [2016 Best Picture Nominees](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2016-best-picture-nominees/)
- [News](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/news/)
- [Oscars](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/oscars/)
- [Found footage](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/found-footage/)
- [Doomsday](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/doomsday/)
- [Apocalypse](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/apocalypse/)
- [Dolby Vision](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dolby-vision/)
- [Dolby](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dolby/)
- [Technology](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/technology/)
- [Academy Awards](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/academy-awards/)
- [Industry News](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/industry-news/)
- [Memoirs](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/memoirs/)
- [Journalism](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/journalism/)
- [New on Netflix and Amazon Prime March 2016](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/new-on-netflix-and-amazon-prime-march-2016/)
- [Paranormal](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/paranormal/)
- [March 13](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/march-13/)
- [Bunkerdown](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/bunkerdown/)
- [Pulitzer Prize Winning Critic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/pulitzer-prize-winning-critic/)
- [DC Comics](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dc-comics/)
- [College comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/college-comedy/)
- [April Binge](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/april-binge/)
- [HBO Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hbo-movie/)
- [Versus](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/versus/)
- [Buddy comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/buddy-comedy/)
- [Medical Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/medical-thriller/)
- [NemoDory](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/nemodory/)
- [DorisDory](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dorisdory/)
- [CDC](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cdc/)
- [Sundance](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sundance/)
- [Outer space action](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/outer-space-action/)
- [Wind of 2016](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/wind-of-2016/)
- [Romcom](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/romcom/)
- [Melodrama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/melodrama/)
- ["Hands of Stone"](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hands-of-stone/)
- [Boxing](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/boxing/)
- [Panama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/panama/)
- [Robert De Niro](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/robert-de-niro/)
- [Edgar Ramirez](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/edgar-ramirez/)
- [Netflix](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/netflix/)
- [Neo-noir](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/neo-noir/)
- [Musical theatre](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/musical-theatre/)
- [Heist](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/heist/)
- [Golden Globes 2017](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/golden-globes-2017/)
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival 2017](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-jewish-film-festival-2017/)
- [Psychological thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/psychological-thriller/)
- [X-men](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/x-men/)
- [Cop comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cop-comedy/)
- [May23](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/may23/)
- [Split vs It](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/split-vs-it/)
- [Environment](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/environment/)
- [Dramedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dramedy/)
- [Crime thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/crime-thriller/)
- [Golden Globes 2018](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/golden-globes-2018/)
- [P.T. Anderson](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/p-t-anderson/)
- [2017 Oscar Best Picture Nominee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2017-oscar-best-picture-nominee/)
- [TV](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/tv/)
- [FX](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/fx/)
- [Atlanta](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta/)
- [Photos](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/photos/)
- [Red Carpet](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/red-carpet/)
- [Blindspotting review](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/blindspotting-review/)
- [South by Southwest](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/south-by-southwest/)
- [May the 4th](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/may-the-4th/)
- [Deadpool](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/deadpool/)
- [Romantic drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/romantic-drama/)
- [Survival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/survival/)
- [Endurance](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/endurance/)
- [Supernatural](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/supernatural/)
- [#ATLwood](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlwood/)
- [ABBA](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/abba/)
- [Warner Bros](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/warner-bros/)
- [#CrazyRichAsians](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/crazyrichasians/)
- [#GoldOpen](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/goldopen/)
- [#SearchingMovie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/searchingmovie/)
- [#BurtReynolds](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/burtreynolds/)
- [TIFF](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/tiff/)
- [Variety Studio](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/variety-studio/)
- [AT&T](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/att/)
- [DIRECTV](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/directv/)
- [First Man](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/first-man/)
- [Awards Season](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/awards-season/)
- [NASA](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/nasa/)
- [Toronto International Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/toronto-international-film-festival/)
- [Historical film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/historical-film/)
- [Rock and roll](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/rock-and-roll/)
- [LGBTQ](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lgbtq/)
- [Awards](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/awards/)
- [DC](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dc/)
- [2018 Golden Globe Winner](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2018-golden-globe-winner/)
- [Georgia](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/georgia/)
- [GFCA](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/gfca/)
- [Eastrail 177 Trilogy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/eastrail-177-trilogy/)
- [Best Picture 2018](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-2018/)
- [DC Universe](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dc-universe/)
- [Summer preview](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/summer-preview/)
- [Superhero; Marvel; Action](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/superhero-marvel-action/)
- [John Wick](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/john-wick/)
- [LEGO](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lego/)
- [Animated Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/animated-film/)
- [Toy Story Series](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/toy-story-series/)
- [Family Summer 2019](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/family-summer-2019/)
- [Fall movie preview](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/fall-movie-preview/)
- [Comic book](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/comic-book/)
- [Subtitled](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/subtitled/)
- [Skywalker Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/skywalker-saga/)
- [Faith-based film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/faith-based-film/)
- [Universal Classic Monsters](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/universal-classic-monsters/)
- [Religious film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/religious-film/)
- [Christian film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/christian-film/)
- [Sports drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sports-drama/)
- [Tenet](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/tenet/)
- [Wonder Woman](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/wonder-woman/)
- [Da 5 Bloods](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/da-5-bloods/)
- [Hamilton](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hamilton/)
- [Mulan](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/mulan/)
- [Ashland Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/ashland-film/)
- [Qfest](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/qfest/)
- [Cinema St. Louis](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cinema-st-louis/)
- [Disney+](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/disney-2/)
- [Hulu](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hulu/)
- [scifi](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/scifi/)
- [Legal Thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/legal-thriller/)
- [Concert film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/concert-film/)
- [The Karate Kid](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/the-karate-kid/)
- [Cobra Kai](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cobra-kai/)
- [Golden Globes](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/golden-globes/)
- [Zamunda](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/zamunda/)
- [2021 Best Picture Oscar Nominee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2021-best-picture-oscar-nominee/)
- [Foreign film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/foreign-film/)
- [MonsterVerse](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/monsterverse/)
- [Video Review](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/video-review/)
- [James Bond](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/james-bond/)
- [Satire](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/satire/)
- [International film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/international-film/)
- [ATLFF](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlff/)
- [Cooper Raiff](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cooper-raiff/)
- [Best Picture Oscar](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-picture-oscar/)
- [Multiverse2022](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/multiverse2022/)
- [Free film series](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/free-film-series/)
- [Cruise as Maverick](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cruise-as-maverick/)
- [GBLTQIA+](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/gbltqia/)
- [Body horror](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/body-horror/)
- [Musical biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/musical-biopic/)
- [Thor](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/thor/)
- [H40](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/h40/)
- [Georgia Film Academy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/georgia-film-academy/)
- [Francis Ford Coppola](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/francis-ford-coppola/)
- [Creed III](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/creed-iii/)
- [Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3/)
- [Filmmaking](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/filmmaking/)
- [Blake Jenner](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/blake-jenner/)
- [Broadway](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/broadway/)
- [Top 25](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/top-25/)
- [Scream](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/scream/)
- [Creed Franchise](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/creed-franchise/)
- [John Wick Franchise](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/john-wick-franchise/)
- [Atlanta Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-film/)
- [Guardians Trilogy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/guardians-trilogy/)
- [Little Mermaid](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/little-mermaid/)
- [Georgia Filmmaking](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/georgia-filmmaking/)
- [Travel](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/travel/)
- [Luxury](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/luxury/)
- [AMC](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/amc/)
- [Phipps Plaza](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/phipps-plaza/)
- [Nobu](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/nobu/)
- [Saks Fifth Avenue](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/saks-fifth-avenue/)
- [Media](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/media/)
- [Atlanta movie theatre](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-movie-theatre/)
- [Superhero; Animated; Action; Spider-Man](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/superhero-animated-action-spider-man/)
- [Atlanta films](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-films/)
- [Fayetteville Georgia](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/fayetteville-georgia/)
- [Trilith](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/trilith/)
- [Before Trilogy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/before-trilogy/)
- [Adventures by Disney](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/adventures-by-disney/)
- [#barbieheimer](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/barbieheimer/)
- [Faith-Based Films](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/faith-based-films/)
- [168 Film Project](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/168-film-project/)
- [Trilith Studios](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/trilith-studios/)
- [#Barbenheimer](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/barbenheimer/)
- [Podcast](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/podcast/)
- [Video](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/video/)
- [Taylor Swift](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/taylor-swift/)
- [Concert Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/concert-movie/)
- [Historical biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/historical-biopic/)
- [French film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/french-film/)
- [Cannes Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cannes-film-festival/)
- [2023 Awards](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/2023-awards/)
- [December 15 2023](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/december-15-2023/)
- [Awards Watch](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/awards-watch/)
- [SEFCA](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sefca/)
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-jewish-film-festival/)
- [Apple TV+](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/apple-tv/)
- [Foreign Language Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/foreign-language-film/)
- [Godzilla](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/godzilla/)
- [Hollywood Travel](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/hollywood-travel/)
- [Luxury Travel](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/luxury-travel/)
- [LGBTQIA+](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lgbtqia/)
- [German film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/german-film/)
- [Sundance 2024](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sundance-2024/)
- [LGBTIA+](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lgbtia/)
- [Nature](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/nature/)
- [AJFF](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/ajff/)
- [The Sphere](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/the-sphere/)
- [Oscars 2024](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/oscars-2024/)
- [Town at Trilith](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/town-at-trilith/)
- [Enzo](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/enzo/)
- [Music documentary](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/music-documentary/)
- [Atlanta Film Festival 2024](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-film-festival-2024/)
- [Parody](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/parody/)
- [Megalopolis](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/megalopolis/)
- [True crime](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/true-crime/)
- [Anthology](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/anthology/)
- [Feature Story](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/feature-story/)
- [Post-Production](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/post-production/)
- [Alien saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/alien-saga/)
- [Out on Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/out-on-film/)
- [Dystopian scifi](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dystopian-scifi/)
- [SNL](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/snl/)
- [Coppola](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/coppola/)
- [Peachtree City](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/peachtree-city/)
- [Spanish Language](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/spanish-language/)
- [Sword and sandals](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sword-and-sandals/)
- [Wicked Saga](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/wicked-saga/)
- [Pablo Larraín Women Trilogy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/pablo-larrain-women-trilogy/)
- [#AFCC](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/afcc/)
- [#AFCCAwards](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/afccawards/)
- [Southeast Film Critics Association](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/southeast-film-critics-association/)
- [Courtroom thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/courtroom-thriller/)
- [Iran](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/iran/)
- [Latvian film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/latvian-film/)
- [Awards contender](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/awards-contender/)
- [Animal film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/animal-film/)
- [War drama](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/war-drama/)
- [Best of 2024](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-of-2024/)
- [Luca 2024 Double Bill](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/luca-2024-double-bill/)
- [Cats in Floods](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/cats-in-floods/)
- [Bloated music biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/bloated-music-biopic/)
- [AJFF25](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/ajff25/)
- [Oscars 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/oscars-2025/)
- [Dorian Awards](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/dorian-awards/)
- [Sundance 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sundance-2025/)
- [AJFF 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/ajff-2025/)
- [Brazilian Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/brazilian-film/)
- [Best Actress 2025 Candidate](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/best-actress-2025-candidate/)
- [Whodunit](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/whodunit/)
- [Event](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/event/)
- [Two Sparrows](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/two-sparrows/)
- [LGBTQIA +](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/lgbtqia-2/)
- [Celebrity](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/celebrity/)
- [Fairy Tale](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/fairy-tale/)
- [Out on Film 2025](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/out-on-film-2025/)
- [A24](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/a24/)
- [Caper](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/caper/)
- [Espionage](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/espionage/)
- [Accountant Films](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/accountant-films/)
- [MCU](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/mcu/)
- [Sports film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sports-film/)
- [The New Avengers](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/the-new-avengers/)
- [Public Broadcasting](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/public-broadcasting/)
- [Documentary shorts](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/documentary-shorts/)
- [ArtsXchange](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/artsxchange/)
- [South Fulton Arts](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/south-fulton-arts/)
- [BronzeLens Film Festival](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/bronzelens-film-festival/)
- [Supernatural horror](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/supernatural-horror/)
- [Trailers](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/trailers/)
- [Sports movies](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sports-movies/)
- [Sports Movie](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sports-movie/)
- [Jurassic Franchise](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/jurassic-franchise/)
- [James Gunn](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/james-gunn/)
- [LED Stage](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/led-stage/)
- [Film Lighting](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/film-lighting/)
- [Happy Gilmore](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/happy-gilmore/)
- [Spike Lee](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/spike-lee/)
- [Crime comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/crime-comedy/)
- [Music biopic](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/music-biopic/)
- [Knives Out Series](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/knives-out-series/)
- [Spanish Film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/spanish-film/)
- [Zootopia](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/zootopia/)
- [Avatar series](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/avatar-series/)
- [Atlanta Jewish Film Festival 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-jewish-film-festival-2026/)
- [Sundance Film Festival 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sundance-film-festival-2026/)
- [Sundance 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/sundance-2026/)
- [Special Event](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/special-event/)
- [PGA TOUR Superstore](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/pga-tour-superstore/)
- [Atlanta Film Festival 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/atlanta-film-festival-2026/)
- [Summer Movies 2026](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/summer-movies-2026/)
- [Revenge film](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/revenge-film/)
- [Family comedy](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/family-comedy/)
- [Paranoid thriller](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/paranoid-thriller/)
- [Live-action remake](https://silverscreencapture.com/tag/live-action-remake/)