MLK/FBI
An indisputable powerful documentary, "MLK/FBI" concerns the endless public feud between former Director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.--who was murdered in [...]
The White Tiger
Ramin Bahrani's screen version of Arvind Adiga's best-selling novel is certainly hit-or-miss, a visceral, tragic melodrama that plods along with many sudden tonal shifts from scene to scene, while leaving [...]
Locked Down
Timely but implausible, stylish but inconsistent, Doug Liman's "Locked Down" is a modernist narrative that's setting is during the early stages of the COVID-19 lock down, an amalgam of many [...]
The Best Films of 2020 – Robert Butler
As regularly, the best surprises came in smaller packages: One year after the foreign-language film "Parasite" wowed audiences, critics, and Oscar voters, foreign language films continued to reign supreme with [...]
One Night in Miami
Empowering in ideas and full of compelling moments, "One Night in Miami" isn't your comprehensive biopic or period piece of the celebrated historical icons on display in Regina King's directorial [...]
Ghost Tropic
Bas Devos's hypnotic and woozy Belgium film centers on a middle-aged Muslim woman, a widow, who gets lost during the late hours in Brussels. The film becomes very dreamlike and [...]
A Sun
The artistic and critical success of such films as "The Godfather," "The Best of Youth," "The Tree of Life, "Boyhood," and "Another Year" have truly revived more sprawling films to [...]
News of the World by Ian Courtney
We live in an age of information overload. Twitter feeds, Instagram stories, Reddit threads, Facebook posts, podcasts, streaming services, text messages, email, etc; they are all coming at us a [...]
Soul
Releasing right on Christmas Day on Disney+ instead of theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic, "Soul"-- the latest Pixar animated film directed by Peter Docter and co-directed by American playwright [...]
Small Axe
‘Small Axe’ is an epic undertaking based on real people—excluding the ‘Lovers Rock’ entry—who lived in the West Indian community of London. And though no exact date is given with [...]