Film Festival

Sundance 2023 Reviews: “Cat Person,” “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” & “My Animal”

Posted February 3, 2023 by Mitch Salem

  CAT PERSON:  It seems to be necessary to establish one’s bona fides (or lack thereof) before commenting on Susanna Fogel’s Cat Person, so I’ll note that I’ve never read Kristen Roupenian’s celebrated New Yorker short story.  I’m given to understand, however, that the entire third act of Michelle Ashford’s adaptation is an add-on, which […]

Full Story »

Film Festival

Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Woman King” & “Prisoner’s Daughter”

Posted September 13, 2022 by Mitch Salem

  THE WOMAN KING (Tri-Star/Sony – Sept. 16):  Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King feels something like what would happen if the Themyscira Island Amazonian sequences of Wonder Woman were feature length.  Dana Stevens’ script (from a story by the actress/producer Maria Bello) is set in the 19th-century African kingdom of Dahomey, which is ruled by […]

Full Story »

Current Release

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Counselor”

Posted October 25, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  THE COUNSELOR:  Not Even For Free – A Deluxe Pedigree, But Only Cut-Rate Nihilism The first “uh-oh” moment in THE COUNSELOR comes early, perhaps 10 minutes in.  We’ve barely been introduced to Reiner (Javier Bardem, genially dissolute, his hair spiky this time) and his lover Malkina (Cameron Diaz, speaking with an on-again, off-again sultry […]

Full Story »

Archive

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Battle Los Angeles”

Posted March 18, 2011 by Mitch Salem

  Watch it at home.   The deadliest weapon unleashed in BATTLE LOS ANGELES is its barrage of war-movie cliches. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but there’s this rag-tag group of Marines, led by a hard-bitten veteran, that has to go into enemy territory to rescue some civilians before friendly forces bomb the […]

Full Story »

Articles

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”

Posted May 2, 2012 by Mitch Salem

    THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL:  Worth A Ticket – A Different Kind of Dream Team     Bear with me here. On Friday, Fox Searchlight will throw THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL directly into the path of the mega-buster that is The Avengers.  (Well, in 27 big-city theatres, anyway.)  It’s tempting, of course, […]

Full Story »

Archive

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Footloose”

Posted October 14, 2011 by Mitch Salem

  FOOTLOOSE:  Watch It At Home – Faithfully Reproduces the Original For Good and Bad   1980s week at the multiplex continues with a remake of FOOTLOOSE, a trip back to the territory of Herbert Ross’s 1984 hit.  (Financially, by the way, there was no contest between the 1980s versions of this weekend’s entries:  the […]

Full Story »

Archive

THE BIJOU REVIEW: “The Change-Up”

Posted August 4, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> THE CHANGE UP – Watch It At Home:  Cliches with Dirty Words Are Still Cliches There have been plenty of R-rated comedies this summer–a bumper crop, really–but none more fully committed to raunch than THE CHANGE-UP.  The script by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (they wrote The Hangover, but also Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) […]

Full Story »

Film Festival

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “Knives Out” & “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood”

Posted September 9, 2019 by Mitch Salem

  KNIVES OUT (Lionsgate – November 27):  Rian Johnson’s delectable reinvention of the old-fashioned puzzle whodunnit wears its convoluted plotting on its sleeve, weaving and circling about so that when you think you know what’s going on, he can bang his trap shut.  Johnson isn’t shy about his influences here.  The murder victim, Harlan Thrombrey […]

Full Story »