|
3/4
|
A Haunting in Venice
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Since he too is an actor, it is not surprising that Branagh the director gets great performances from other actors.
Posted Sep 14, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Freedom's Path
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Freedom’s Path is a relentlessly, oppressively well-intentioned movie that struggles mightily to live up to the importance of its subject matter.
Posted Sep 04, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Madeleine Collins
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
the delayed explanation for the protagonist’s situation did not materially alter my judgment about her decisions.
Posted Aug 14, 2023
|
|
|
Susie Searches
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Clemons has to carry the film.
Posted Aug 01, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
A Song for Imogene
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Erika Arlee does a good job of balancing a movie audience's hunger for uplift with an artist's need to tell hard truths
Posted Jul 26, 2023
|
|
3.5/4
|
Oppenheimer
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
I am not a formal member of the Church of Nolan, though I do think he is the most consistently ambitious commercial director working today. And I think that’s a good thing.
Posted Jul 19, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Prisoner's Daughter
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Brian Cox and Kate Beckinsale are outstanding in breathing life into some relatively stock characters.
Posted Jul 18, 2023
|
|
4/4
|
The Starling Girl
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
In this day, one almost hates to saddle a feature-film debut with too-effusive praise because it is the nature of the Internet to push back on anything enthusiastic. But, hey, bravas to Parmet and star Eliza Scanlen.
Posted Jul 17, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
The Problem of the Hero
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
For someone who has grown up with [Native Son], the film provides the space to reflect on how my own response to Wright's work and attitude has changed over the years.
Posted Jul 08, 2023
|
|
4/5
|
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
One of the most refreshing and satisfying franchise films since Aliens.
Posted Jul 07, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Rodeo
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Only in a few brief scenes where we see some of the bike tricks performed or discussed does the film shake off its sluggish lethargy and offer a tone other than sullen.
Posted Jun 26, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
It Is In Us All
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
The story never quite coalesces into a coherent enough narrative to land hard, but it does provide Cosmo Jarvis with a welcome showcase for his considerable talent.
Posted May 22, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Yes, there are space battles, but the impetus for them is personal rather than universal survival, and that makes us more invested in the outcome.
Posted May 02, 2023
|
|
3/5
|
Queen of Glory
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
A modest but effective portrayal of reverse culture shock.
Posted May 01, 2023
|
|
1/4
|
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
I wasn’t expecting Pixar, but the heroes end where they started, not having been transformed by their experiences or learning anything from them.
Posted Apr 08, 2023
|
|
2.5/4
|
Space Oddity
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Is it more loving to indulge someone’s fantasy than to confront it for what you think it is?
Posted Mar 28, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Last Contact
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
It’s a melancholy, meditative work more interested in its situation’s ability to extract philosophical dialogue from its characters than its ability to force them into dramatically meaningful decisions.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
3/4
|
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Sufficient for the day are the pleasures of the day.
Posted Mar 27, 2023
|
|
2.4/5
|
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
A return to what Marvel does best ... teasing the next movie.
Posted Feb 23, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Shadowplay
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
More enthralled by its ideas than capable of enthralling others with them.
Posted Feb 04, 2023
|
|
3.5/5
|
Kitchen Brigade
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
They say that one of the hardest culinary challenges that distinguish top-tier chefs from those closer to average is making a seemingly plain consommé. Louis-Julien Petit has nailed the cinematic equivalent...
Posted Jan 15, 2023
|
|
2/5
|
Voodoo Macbeth
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Welles comes across here as a bit of a naifish knave, a slightly less affable version of Shakespeare in Love‘s lovable idiot genius.
Posted Jan 06, 2023
|
|
2/4
|
Borrowed
(2023)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
It doesn’t help that there have been other, better movies that have more coherently explored the territory between grooming and loving.
Posted Dec 27, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
A Star Without a Star: The Untold Juanita Moore Story
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
It is a film that conspicuously, but fairly addresses historical racism in Hollywood and, subsequently, America.
Posted Dec 14, 2022
|
|
1/5
|
The Sound of Violet
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
"The characters are so one-dimensional that the film appears to flounder when asked to provide any secondary features of them beyond the single adjective identifiers that would fit on a pitch card: autistic, prostitute, grandmother, pimp, boss..."
Posted Nov 17, 2022
|
|
2.4
|
Stay the Night
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
"A tamer version of Before Sunrise.'
Posted Oct 30, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
All Sorts
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Office Space meets Beetlejuice...and it works.
Posted Oct 19, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
An uplifting documentary that argues that people from different backgrounds can fuse and harmonize.
Posted Oct 19, 2022
|
|
1/4
|
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Comedy, in other words, is the land of embarrassment, but Honk For Jesus is a detailed map of the land of shame and guilt — the least funny emotions there are.
Posted Sep 01, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Luck
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
If you are looking for an animated film with the emotional gravitas of a Pixar heart-plucker and just a touch of old-school Looney Tunes zaniness, you are in Luck.
Posted Aug 05, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
Both Sides of the Blade
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Both Sides has the trademark Denis opacity, but the scenario should be more familiar (than that of Beau Travail) to those watching
Posted Jun 30, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Forgiven
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
If the worst thing I can say about The Forgiven is that it is not as good as Calvary, the best thing I can say is that it is nevertheless a serious film about conflicted characters wrestling with moral questions.
Posted Jun 29, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Jerry & Marge Go Large
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
A surprisingly nuanced examination of work, capitalism, and what gives our lives meaning....
Posted Jun 16, 2022
|
|
3/5
|
Days of Daisy
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
If a film’s story is engaging, production elements are rarely a detriment to one’s enjoyment or appreciation of it
Posted Jun 09, 2022
|
|
2/5
|
Jurassic World Dominion
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Ellie looks at a captive Whateverasaurus and gushes that the wonder of seeing dinosaurs “never gets old.”
Posted Jun 08, 2022
|
|
2/5
|
The Bad Guys
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
The insistence that good and bad are merely masks we put on and take off is pretty much the antithesis of the message of most great art...
Posted Apr 21, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
How They Got Over
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
It mixes some talking heads with archival performances, the better to understand the contributions of gospel to the development of rock and roll.
Posted Apr 15, 2022
|
|
4/5
|
Mama Bears
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
"I was a hateful reflection of a loving God."
Posted Apr 09, 2022
|
|
1.5/5
|
Ambulance
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Ambulance is an amoral film about amoral people that made me angry.
Posted Apr 07, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
Belle Vie
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Belle Vie is the name of a Los Angeles Bistro owned and operated by Vincent Samarco. (It is also an ironic comment on the restaurant business and how difficult it is.)
Posted Mar 29, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Yellow Wallpaper
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
What the film does right -- making the psychosis rather than the patriarchy the antagonist -- comes with challenges.
Posted Mar 29, 2022
|
|
2.5/4
|
The Unmaking of a College
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Marginal fresh rating because it does speak to a disenchanted and discouraged population and tell the people in it that organization and dissent can still be effective political tools.
Posted Feb 10, 2022
|
|
3/4
|
Air Doll
(2009)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Permeated with the auteurs touch of melancholy, but it also hints that there is light and love in the world around us,
Posted Feb 03, 2022
|
|
2/4
|
The 355
(2022)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
A year from now, you may see the DVD in Redbox and ask your spouse, 'Did we see that?' She (or he) will most likely shrug uncertainly.
Posted Jan 06, 2022
|
|
|
The Green Knight
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
I have wondered when we were going to collectively wake up and realize how good Dev Patel really is. The casting here is perfect, as Patel's persona practically radiates aspirational nobility.
Posted Jan 05, 2022
|
|
|
Passing
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
In an efficient 98 minutes, the film keeps upping the ante, adding variations to the same theme in order to show that we all pretend at times to be what we are not...
Posted Jan 05, 2022
|
|
|
A Hero
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Farhadi gives us a portrait of people living close to the abyss, trying not to fall, and increasingly afraid to offer a hand to another less the least knew burden becomes a final weight that causes them to buckle.
Posted Jan 05, 2022
|
|
|
The Worst Person in the World
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Stories that feature potentially unlikeable leads with whom you are meant to empathize require confident, fearless performances, and Renate Reinsve delivers here in a big way.
Posted Jan 05, 2022
|
|
|
House of Gucci
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
Nobody comes out looking good in this movie, and that's usually a deal-breaker for me. But there is catharsis here in every sense of the word.
Posted Jan 05, 2022
|
|
|
Attica
(2021)
|
Kenneth R. Morefield
|
I don't think Attica glorifies the prisoners, but it does humanize them. That is, it presents them as human beings.
Posted Jan 05, 2022
|
>