Movie Reviews Only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5/4 | 74% | Paterno (2018) |
Brilliant as ever, [Al] Pacino is the master trickster who manages to both demonize and humanize Paterno.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 19, 2018
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| No Score Yet | GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II (2017) |
Moving, vivid, important.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 9, 2018
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| 100% | Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018) |
Alice Cooper as Herod blew the roof off the Armory. Or was it perhaps that atomic tangerine lamé suit that did all the destruction? In any event, poor Armory.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 1, 2018
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| 3.5/4 | No Score Yet | Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media (2018) |
Some fleeting segues to the Black Lives Matter movement feel obligatory and woefully incomplete -- but they don't derail this otherwise excellent program.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Mar 25, 2018
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| 3/4 | 100% | Chris Rock: Tamborine (2018) |
There's a new world order out there. Looks like Chris Rock -- yes, Rock -- got the memo, too.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Feb 14, 2018
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| 2.5/4 | 89% | May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (2017) |
But what "May It Last" never adequately explores is where that desolation and pain came from. The result is a celebration, without much in the way of revelation.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2018
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| 2/4 | No Score Yet | I Am Sam Kinison (2017) |
With friends, family and admirers all lined up here, they attest to a good man who was deeply troubled. What they can't quite get to is who exactly that man was. He briefly comes into focus, then recedes.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Dec 17, 2017
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| 2.5/4 | 94% | The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee (2017) |
Warm, genial portrait of a great editor, but not much else.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Dec 5, 2017
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| 3/4 | 88% | The Problem with Apu (2017) |
A congenial and persuasive argument for why Apu must go.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 20, 2017
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| 3.5/4 | 100% | Baltimore Rising (2017) |
Excellent you-are-there film that takes viewers -- and Baltimore -- from despair to hope.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 19, 2017
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| 3/4 | No Score Yet | Beyond a Year in Space (2017) |
Brisk informative overview of Kelly's life back on the ground, but leaves a few questions unanswered, including this one: How long before that first trip to Mars?‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 14, 2017
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| 3/4 | 93% | Jerry Before Seinfeld (2017) |
Seinfeld-before-"Seinfeld" fans will especially enjoy this congenial, familiar hour special.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Sep 18, 2017
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| B+ | 68% | To the Bone (2017) |
The performances are mostly excellent, Collins' above all.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jul 17, 2017
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| B- | 73% | The Wizard of Lies (2017) |
De Niro and Pfeiffer inhabit these roles so fully that you forget they're De Niro and Pfeiffer - no small feat considering their statures.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted May 18, 2017
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| A | 67% | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017) |
A beautiful, moving film, and Oprah (as usual) brings it.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 20, 2017
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| A | 100% | Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg (2016) |
A movable, funny and very enjoyable feast.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Mar 29, 2017
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| A- | No Score Yet |
Raunchy, offensive, funny.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Mar 21, 2017
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| B | 100% | Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends) (2017) |
Emotional portrait of a frontman at the center of a horrific attack, but it doesn't feel quite complete.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Feb 13, 2017
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| A+ | 100% | Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2017) |
A beauty that will mostly make you laugh and, of course, cry.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 6, 2017
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| 79% | Hairspray Live! (2016) |
NBC promised the most lavish live TV musical ever, spread across a couple of Universal lots. But instead, this often felt like some of those million-plus high school productions: crimped, dark, confined and spread across a few school stages.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Dec 8, 2016
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| B+ | 11% | Search Party (2016) |
Uneven, intelligent, weird, sometimes funny (more often not) - and almost consistently engaging.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 22, 2016
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| B | No Score Yet | Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise (2016) |
As worthy, intelligent, sweeping and absolutely necessary as this four-hour film is - and caveat emptor, I've only seen the first two - "Black America" still often feels like a survey.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 15, 2016
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| A- | 100% | Hamilton's America (2016) |
There's something viscerally inspirational about the Miranda on full display here. That's what's best too.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Oct 19, 2016
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| B- | 30% | The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (2016) |
Dutiful, reverent, energetic, expertly crafted and yet utterly incapable of escaping the long shadow of its exotic midnight forbear. The capacity to entertain is still here. The capacity to shock is not.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Oct 18, 2016
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| B+ | 100% | Suited (2016) |
Often moving film about transgender identity - almost nothing about fashion.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jun 17, 2016
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| D | 55% | Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? (2016) |
The movie is much ado about nothing, feeling desperately thin and pointless. At first promising campy fun, it's soon simply mystifying, then misguided, gross and finally tiresome in its look-at-me-ness.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jun 15, 2016
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| A | 100% | O.J.: Made in America (2016) |
Excellent, balanced, powerful, engaging, comprehensive perspective on the "trial of the century" and race. The first two parts are best.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jun 9, 2016
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| A- | 88% | All the Way (2016) |
Cranston doesn't turn in one performance here, but at least a dozen. All of them, incidentally, are spectacular.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted May 19, 2016
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| A | 93% | Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015) |
Fine, judicious, generous portrait of a lady who sang the blues.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 29, 2016
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| C+ | 81% | Confirmation (2016) |
Confirmation is really Affirmation. Little here challenges - or deepens - the record.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 12, 2016
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| 67% | Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper (2016) |
Fascinating, disjointed, moving, tiresome, elegant, tacky, fast, slow. There's a little something for everyone here.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 5, 2016
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| A- | 100% | Everything Is Copy (2016) |
A son's post humous gift to his mother - and often a fascinating one.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Mar 22, 2016
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| A- | 98% | Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck (2015) |
Morgen and his editors have simply done a remarkable job -- also an artful one -- in piecing together this residuum.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 3, 2016
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| B | 72% | A Very Murray Christmas (2015) |
Sure, it's indulgent, but so were those old TV specials. Besides, Murray is a national treasure. He's earned the right.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Dec 4, 2015
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| B- | 89% | Bessie (2015) |
Well-made biopic absent a whole lot of music and -- as a result -- much emotional resonance.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Dec 3, 2015
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| 56% | Ferrell Takes The Field (2015) |
Would you rather me play nice here, given the auspices of what appears to be a highly laudable charity and Ferrell's efforts in support thereof? Or save you 49 minutes of precious time Saturday night, which might otherwise be devoted to (I dunno), sleep?‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Sep 11, 2015
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| F+ | 36% | Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015) |
Sure "Sharknado" is bad and -- sure -- we expect nothing less.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jul 22, 2015
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| B+ | 81% | Nightingale (2015) |
Nightingale is really about David Oyelowo, a magnificent actor with astonishing range who draws viewers deep down into the darkness with his character.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted May 29, 2015
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| A+ | 95% | Last Days in Vietnam (2014) |
Authoritative and exhaustive. A must-watch.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Apr 30, 2015
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| B | 94% | Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) |
Going Clear is a heat-seeking missile that doesn't take long to find the heat.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Mar 28, 2015
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| A | 100% | Night Will Fall (2014) |
Horrifying. Fascinating.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 23, 2015
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| B | 53% | Whitney (2015) |
DaCosta, a former America's Next Top Model contestant, instead captures the butterfly -- or the one people fell in love with in the first place.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 16, 2015
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| F+ | 59% | Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014) |
The Second One is also more predictable, silly and self-conscious of the legacy -- absurd as it might seem to use the word "legacy" anywhere near a review about Sharknado.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jul 28, 2014
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| A- | 94% | The Normal Heart (2014) |
Powerful, still full of anger, and hard to watch.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted May 22, 2014
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| A | 96% | Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself (2013) |
A hell of a lot of fun. George Plimpton would heartily approve.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted May 19, 2014
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| B | 85% | Hawking (2013) |
As billed, an intimate look at a genius, but the science gets a major haircut here.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 29, 2014
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| B+ | 92% | Herblock: The Black & the White (2013) |
Loving, informative, often fascinating portrait. But it could've done without the re-enactments.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Jan 27, 2014
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| B | 40% | How Sherlock Changed the World (2013) |
A little long-winded in some stretches, not detailed enough in others but Holmes fans -- and fans of cop procedurals -- should like this.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Dec 17, 2013
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| B+ | 92% | The Challenger Disaster (2013) |
Hurt is genetically incapable of turning in a substandard performance -- whether in Damages, or name-your-favorite-Hurt-flick, or even in this quiet, intelligent film.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 18, 2013
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| C+ | 56% | Killing Kennedy (2013) |
The even larger issue is familiarity. We already know too much and paradoxically too little about the JFK assassination. A TV movie needed to tell us something we don't know. No dice here.‐ Newsday
Read More | Posted Nov 12, 2013
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