You’d better pray Arthur Breznik is crazy. Because otherwise, we’re in real trouble.
An ex-detective with post-traumatic stress, Arthur’s currently living way off the grid and battling bad dreams and horrific hallucinations. He’s also convinced…

Wander

When my wife and I searched for a house more than 20 years ago, we had a few musts. The town had to have great schools. There had to be easy train access to Manhattan. And one more thing.
“I want a movie theater I can walk to,” I said.
I still . .…

The Last Picture Show? What the Loss of Local Movie Theaters Means for Communities

What do you call it when you keep trying to fix something even when it isn’t broken?
In The Sounding, you call it psychiatry.
A strikingly unique debut from director and star Catherine Eaton, it’s the moving story of Olivia, a 30-something woman who…

The Sounding

Melissa McCarthy may save the world, but she can’t fix this sci-fi farce
Dir: Ben Falcone. US. 2020. 106 mins.
Superintelligence isn’t as smart as it thinks it is.A high-tech romantic comedy, it mixes a computer’s plan to end the world with a…

‘Superintelligence’: Review

“The Mentor” is a movie that always wants to push things right to the edge. Unfortunately, it often pushesso far it slips off itself.
A first feature from Moez Solis, the story starts with Nilah, a young, Black and desperate wannabe filmmaker in…

The Mentor

Neither about nor for children, but recommended nonetheless
Dir: Evan Morgan. Canada. 2020. 100 mins.
The first mystery posed by “The Kid Detective” may be how such a smart movie got stuck with such a dumb title. It sounds like some early ’70s Disney…

‘Kid Detective’: Review

Michelle Pfeiffer plays the diva in a slow, stubbornly quirky comedy
Dir: Azazel Jacobs. US/UK. 2020. 113 mins.
The phrase “French exit” is slang for a hasty departure, said when someone rushes out with even a fast farewell. The film French Exit,…

‘French Exit’: NYFF Review

Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray deliver a soft-focus view of a Manhattan that now almost seems like a dream
Dir: Sofia Coppola. U.S. 2020. 96 mins
Nostalgia is a dangerous temptation, but Sofia Coppola’s comedy On the Rocks, premiering at the New York…

‘On The Rocks’: NYFF Review

The horror begins within.
A sense of the other. A lurking fear. A strange feeling that grows and grows until it finally explodes.
And suddenly you’re a mother.
Pregnancy has been a mainstay in horror films since at least Village of the Damned, when a…

In Isaac Webb’s ‘First Born,’ Marriage Is Motherhood’s Original Trauma

Some films are content to give you a slice of life. Northwood Pie gives you the whole greasy pizza.
Set in relentlessly normal Irvine, Calif., it’s the amiable, slightly stoned story of a gang of low-achieving friends who spend their days avoiding…

Northwood Pie

They left America to wage a war. They came home to find another one.
America’s battlefield medicine has come a long way since the last generation of warriors. But the irony is that the men and women who now survive traumatic injuries often survive…

Unprescribed

When you see what most “faith-based” films turn out like, it’s a sin.
Modestly budgeted indies made for church-going audiences, their aims are small and their methods predictable. They star a publicly devout actor. They have a central tragedy, which…

Shooting Heroin

Film Racket Movie Reviews

The romantic comedy Toss It starts with someone flipping a coin – but ultimately it’s the audience that’s the loser.
The lead actress is unappealingly cold. The script is overly talky. And the director seems unsure of how to help the star, or the…

Toss It

Video games are not movies, but a lot of movie makers haven’t gotten the message.
Every so often, directors still try to turn at-home entertainment into an in-theater event. Problem is, they’re different things meant for different audiences. Film…

Burning Dog

Almost anyone is capable of anything, and in noir, they’re always capable of much worse.
More of a mood than a genre, film noir is filled with sadistic husbands, femme fatales and poor jerks who always get left holding the bag. There are no happy…

Chameleon

It’s the only sport that matters.
Feverish fans of hockey, football, baseball and basketball can argue all they want, of course. But boxing is fundamentally different. Two warriors enter a ring. One walks out victorious. The other may not walk out at…

Movie Review

Champs

With the new Three Chilies, Rutgers Dining Services' third food truck, the university can offer more meal-plan options with global take on tacos. Bridgewater Courier News
As a conceptual artist, Park McArthur lives where the philosophical meets the…

Park McArthur inspires young artists as Rutgers' Tepper Chair

Dir: Zeina Durra. UK/Egypt. 2019. 85 mins.
Ancient history, both historic and personal, haunts Luxor, a film about a British woman trying to reconnect with her past and its own unfulfilled promise. Zeina Durra’s latest, premiering at Sundance, stars…