|
|
Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life
(2018)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Unlike a lot of comedy specials these days, including most of the ones Netflix does, there's no straining for coolness here, no anger, no strenuous deconstructions of gender roles or savage political humor.
Posted May 25, 2018
|
|
|
Elvis Presley: The Searcher
(2018)
|
Ken Tucker
|
I've listened to Elvis Presley so much over the years, read so many books about him, seen so much video footage of him, that I came to Elvis Presley: The Searcher thinking I'd skim over it... I ended up watching every second.
Posted Apr 13, 2018
|
|
|
Paterno
(2018)
|
Ken Tucker
|
It's a very good performance in a very good film that avoids sensationalizing the crimes in order to explore pain on many levels.
Posted Apr 05, 2018
|
|
|
Chris Rock: Tamborine
(2018)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The jokes here are tight and sharp -- they pierce your sensibilities while making you laugh, sometimes out of shock, sometimes out of ruefulness, and sometimes out of the rough wisdom that he's just shared.
Posted Feb 14, 2018
|
|
|
A Futile and Stupid Gesture
(2018)
|
Ken Tucker
|
[Will] Forte is very good at conveying Kenney's talent and his sadness, but I wonder how many viewers who aren't old Lampoon fans are going to sit all the way through this wiseguy reproduction of a time gone by.
Posted Jan 26, 2018
|
|
|
Bright
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
One feels bad for Smith, who looks weary beyond what his character feels; it's as though he finds it exhausting to deliver the trite hard-boiled dialogue.
Posted Dec 26, 2017
|
|
|
A Christmas Story Live!
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
A Christmas Story Live! was solid, but it lacked the kind of emotional resonance that makes people want to see the movie over and over.
Posted Dec 18, 2017
|
|
|
El Camino Christmas
(2017)
|
Chris Wilson
|
Netflix gets a lump of coal for this attempted entry into the Christmas canon.
Posted Dec 15, 2017
|
|
|
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The Center Will Not Hold has a brisk, no-frills pace and editing. Almost inadvertently, Griffin Dunne's film reveals Didion as an essentially conservative mind, someone who prized order, tradition, and power structures.
Posted Oct 30, 2017
|
|
|
Too Funny To Fail
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Too Funny to Fail succeeds in being funny about failure.
Posted Oct 21, 2017
|
|
|
Gerald's Game
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Gerald's Game is one of the most interesting and well-acted movies you'll see this year.
Posted Sep 29, 2017
|
|
|
Jerry Before Seinfeld
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
It was such a pleasure to sink down into these jokes with Seinfeld, such a treat to be carried along by such a confident professional. It's rare to be treated this way by any piece of current entertainment; enjoy his achievement here.
Posted Sep 19, 2017
|
|
|
Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Since this is the sort of film in which the children of the subject go through photo albums reminiscing about what they remember of their mother and their childhoods with her, don't approach Diana, Our Mother as a shocking-revelation documentary.
Posted Jul 25, 2017
|
|
|
Get Me Roger Stone
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Edited with brisk energy, Get Me Roger Stone is a good example of a certain kind of documentary - one that will appeal to opposing sides.
Posted Jul 12, 2017
|
|
|
Okja
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
It is the many ravishing depictions of Okja's life with Mija -- the beauty the film finds in even so large and ungainly a creature -- that make Okja such a transfixing experience.
Posted Jun 30, 2017
|
|
|
Menendez: Blood Brothers
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
A dreadful TV movie that looks more like a creepy high-school play.
Posted Jun 13, 2017
|
|
|
Long Strange Trip
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
I've always admired the band more than enjoyed it. This time around, watching every minute of this long film without ever being bored, I really enjoyed the Dead, a lot.
Posted Jun 05, 2017
|
|
|
Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The film, directed by Marshall Fine, does an excellent job of reintroducing Klein to a generation younger than the comedian's: Klein is now a hale and hearty 75 years old.
Posted May 10, 2017
|
|
|
Batman & Bill
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Finger's life as a struggling writer, the reverberations of his career failure on his family, and the film's adroit, lively way of guiding us through the potentially dull subject of copyright law all combine to give Batman & Bill a lot of juicy oomph.
Posted May 05, 2017
|
|
|
Burn, Motherf*cker, Burn!
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Burn is filled with amazing and often cleverly chosen footage, including an interview with singer Barry White on Dinah Shore's 1970s daytime talk show in which he talks about his participation in the Watts riots.
Posted Apr 24, 2017
|
|
|
Louis C.K.: 2017
(2017)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Louis C.K. demonstrates what lifts him above so many other performers: An honesty he can bend into jokes that provoke laughter while also, perhaps, tapping into ideas and feelings his listeners may recognize in themselves.
Posted Apr 04, 2017
|
|
|
David Brent: Life on the Road
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The hour-and-a-half-plus seems twice as long, with Brent being constantly humiliated while grinning pathetically.
Posted Feb 10, 2017
|
|
|
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
It captures these two extremely vital spirits in the very recent past, and makes you feel the loss of them even more sharply.
Posted Jan 09, 2017
|
|
|
Dolly Parton's Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
What pulls it all together is what pulls together everything Dolly Parton touches: heartfelt emotion, un-ironic portrayals of modest sincerity (Nettles and Schroder are particularly effective), and a gift for turning treacle into musical gold.
Posted Nov 29, 2016
|
|
|
An American Girl Story - Maryellen 1955: Extraordinary Christmas
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
It's so busy force-feeding its young 2016 audience with proper 2016 attitudes, it fails to capture what the 1950s were like, which might actually be entertaining to any American Girl doll owner.
Posted Nov 28, 2016
|
|
|
Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
As directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, Marathon benefits from the filmmakers clear-eyed, meticulous chronology of the events and their steady focus on the survivors.
Posted Nov 22, 2016
|
|
|
Who Killed JonBenét?
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
That's rich: A cheeseball TV movie asking its viewers to "let go" of their JonBent obsession, even as Who Killed JonBent? exploits the child one more time.
Posted Nov 04, 2016
|
|
|
Hamilton's America
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
All in all, Hamilton's America is a classy commercial for the show.
Posted Oct 22, 2016
|
|
|
Killing Reagan
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The best moments are the quiet little conversations between Ron and Nancy. Matheson and Nixon are convincing as a close couple united by true love as well as common goals and ambitions.
Posted Oct 14, 2016
|
|
|
O.J.: Made in America
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
It's an amazing viewing experience.
Posted Jun 09, 2016
|
|
|
The Dresser
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The crisp bite of Harwood's lines (goosed here and there by snippets of Shakespeare) and the vigorous enthusiasm of Hopkins and McKellen give The Dresser an engaging passion.
Posted May 30, 2016
|
|
|
All the Way
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Transferring his Tony Award-winning performance as President Lyndon B. Johnson to television, Bryan Cranston bursts through the television screen with the energetic shrewdness and vulgarity of one of America's most vexed presidents.
Posted May 23, 2016
|
|
|
Janis: Little Girl Blue
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Little Girl Blue is more like a time capsule of a bygone era than the showcase for an enduringly vital artist.
Posted May 03, 2016
|
|
|
Special Correspondents
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The entire production seems like a half-hour comedy special that got stretched out to feature-length.
Posted Apr 29, 2016
|
|
|
Confirmation
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Washington's performance so thoroughly captures the degree to which Hill did not seek or desire such a status, it's difficult to imagine that Anita Hill sees herself as the proud crusader the film would like to leave us with.
Posted Apr 18, 2016
|
|
|
Pee-wee's Big Holiday
(2016)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Pee-wee and Reubens remain cute, but never cutesy; the artist and his creation are pure products of American culture, unique treasures mixing innocence and knowingness in just the right amounts.
Posted Mar 18, 2016
|
|
|
Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
This is the time of year when sentimentality can be a warming thing, and Parton's Coat will keep an awful lot of people warm this winter.
Posted Dec 10, 2015
|
|
|
A Very Murray Christmas
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
I could imagine lots of people firing up their old Netflix accounts each year to watch A Very Murray Christmas all over again.
Posted Dec 07, 2015
|
|
|
The Wiz Live!
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
A noble effort with flashes of amusement and an abundance of talent, the new version of The Wiz on Thursday night couldn't overcome a few key flaws and the fact that this simply isn't a classic piece of material.
Posted Dec 04, 2015
|
|
|
The Leisure Class
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
The Leisure Class ends up making its most cogent comment on the leisure-class of show business - all these over-paid, over-indulged people, collaborating to give birth to a dull baby.
Posted Nov 02, 2015
|
|
|
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Propelled by theme music that mimics a frantic Ramones song, Sharknado 3 succeeds on the strength of its speed.
Posted Jul 22, 2015
|
|
|
7 Days in Hell
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
I assume a lot of viewers will find it funnier than I did, but I certainly admired the craft, and the impressive cast, that went into making this grass-court trifle.
Posted Jul 13, 2015
|
|
|
Hot Girls Wanted
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
A documentary about making it in the porn industry that works as an excellent warning to viewers who might be tempted to try it as a path to success.
Posted Jun 08, 2015
|
|
|
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
(2014)
|
Ken Tucker
|
A fascinatingly disturbing true-crime documentary, Tales of the Grim Sleeper isn't just about a serial killer, but a film about race and class and the value -- or lack of it -- that society places on certain women.
Posted Apr 27, 2015
|
|
|
Killing Jesus
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
Rendered without much embellishment and acted with firmly controlled vigor, Killing Jesus, a TV adaptation of the bestselling book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, is a fine retelling of the story of Jesus Christ as a historical figure.
Posted Mar 30, 2015
|
|
|
Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief
(2015)
|
Ken Tucker
|
This frequently jaw-dropping documentary... demonstrates vividly how a cult can spread among people searching for something greater in their lives, some advantage over others, some grand answer.
Posted Mar 30, 2015
|
