The biggest surprise cinema held for me in 2021 came at the Telluride Film Festival with the U.S. premiere of The Power of the Dog, the latest from New Zealand director Jane Campion. The movie is magnificent, the best I saw … Continue reading 2021: ‘How nice it is not to be alone.’
Style is half the picture. Story is the other half. William Shakespeare’s 17th-century play, The Tragedie of Macbeth, might be one of the greatest stories ever penned. If not, it’s at least one of the most durable. The desire for power, … Continue reading THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
I don’t even know where to begin. The Matrix Resurrections feels like such a poorly conceived project, approached with such utter cynicism and flimsy execution, that the more I think about it, the less I like it. Any ideas about these characters … Continue reading THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS
JR Moehringer (Daniel Ranieri) has come home to Manhasset. To grandpa, an eccentric old-timer who is smarter than he lets on and lazier than you can imagine. His Long Island house is falling apart, paint chip by paint chip, and … Continue reading THE TENDER BAR
On this week’s edition of After Image, I chat with Metro Arts’ producer Veronica Straight-Lingo about two new movies in theaters: Nightmare Alley and The Tender Bar. Listen to After Image, Fridays at 3:00 p.m., on KGNU’s Metro Arts: 88.5 FM … Continue reading
Geeks are not found; they are made. This is the lesson Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), a drifter in 1940s America, learns first hand at the Ten-in-One traveling carnival. Ten-in-One is a carnival like any other: A strong man, a contortionist, … Continue reading NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Stars can conceive, and they can kill. Two billion years from now, humanity will be snuffed out. Our sun will collapse, and the life-giving Earth will once again be a cold lump of rock floating in space. So with no … Continue reading LAST AND FIRST MEN
Hollywood loves a remake. Sometimes it’s a successful foreign film recast with English-speaking celebrities. Sometimes it’s a decent story that just didn’t work the first time around. Most of the time, it’s a hollow-minded cash-grab by a studio rejiggering its … Continue reading WEST SIDE STORY
It was 70 years ago this past October, on Oct. 15, 1951, that the I Love Lucy TV show hit the airwaves. Not a lot of people owned television sets back in those days, but by the time husband and wife team … Continue reading BEING THE RICARDOS
Michael J. Cinema 
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