‘The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones’ and presentism in cinema By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: The cast of “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones” seeks to establish a strong franchise and storyline; Rating PG-13 I need to apologize up front for what will likely seem like a crazy rant from the geezer who refuses to keep up […]
Female sexuality as seen from the perspective of women By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Aubrey Plaza re-writes the rules of female sexuality in film with “The To Do List” A funny thing happened to me while sitting through the press screening of “The To Do List” a few weeks ago. I got caught up in […]
20th anniversary of classic film By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Patrick Renna calls his shot in “The Sandlot”; a 20th Anniversary screening takes place Aug. 10 at Fifth Third Field I recently learned, once again, to never under-estimate the power and appeal of a scrappy underdog. In preparation for our coverage of the 20th anniversary tour of […]
Powerful debut feature captures the complex humanity of Oscar Grant By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Director Ryan Coogler seeks redemption in “Fruitvale Station”; Rating: R Grade: A When is a day in the life, not just “a day in the life” of a character? It isn’t when that day happens to be the final day, which is […]
Director James Wan uses 1970s suspense to creep us out By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Vera Farmiga as a paranormal investigator in “The Conjuring”; Rating: R Grade: A- As a critic, there’s nothing better than to watch the evolution of someone in the filmmaking realm – be it a writer, director or star. But the real […]
New documentary spotlights black female background singers of rock and soul By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Standing in the shadows: The female voices of rock and soul in “20 Feet from Stardom” Rating: PG-13 Grade: B+ Walking out of Morgan Neville’s documentary “20 Feet From Stardom,” you may come to appreciate the almost existential crisis of […]
New indie DVD release By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: [l to r] Tarik Lowe and Alex Karpovsky struggle with their roles as “Supporting Characters”; Rating: Not Rated Grade: B New York teems with life. Not just with the stars that walk the red carpet and the heroes battling mythic villains in the streets, but also clustered constellations […]
Corporate counter-espionage gets personal By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: [l to r] Ellen Page and Alexander Skarsgård as anarchists in ‘The East’ Rating: PG-13 Grade: A Sometimes you gain so much more when you have the chance to allow a film to marinate in the critical stew, but generally critics aren’t afforded that possibility too often. We […]
Richard Linklater and crew wander not-so-happily into ever after By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: [l to r] Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy take the long road of relationships in “Before Midnight”; Rating: R Grade: A- American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) was 23 years old back in 1994, when he crossed paths with the Parisian Celine (Julie Delpy) on […]
New film opens at Neon next weekend By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Pierce Brosnan [far left] and Trine Dyrholm [second from right] look for new beginnings in “Love is All You Need”; Rated: R Grade: B+ Danish director Susanne Bier seems to be incrementally easing off the dramatic gas with each new release. She began attracting attention […]
A powerful new documentary explores the spiritual journeys of gay Adventists By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Ohio residents Sherri and Jill with their daughters in “Seventh-Gay Adventists” Our primary conception of documentaries comes rooted in the notion that they are issue-based films told from one perspective with all of the supporting facts and figures to make […]
A father and son do what they must to play to their ‘all-American’ roles By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Zac Efron [left] and Dennis Quaid [right] struggle with changing roles in ‘At Any Price’; Rating: R Grade: C- What do we mean today when we refer to “all-American” ideals? What does it mean to be “all-American” […]
Shane Carruth’s latest film tests expectations By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Director Shane Carruth and Amy Seimetz in “Upstream Color”; Rating: Not Rated Grade: A At this year’s San Francisco Film Festival, Steven Soderbergh delivered an intriguing address on the state of the film industry. What made it so fascinating may, in part, have been the timing. […]
The somewhat-true story of an aboriginal girl group in the 1960s By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: An Aboriginal girl group seeks stardom during the late ’60s in “The Sapphires” Rating: PG-13 Grade: B+ There’s a crazy – yet delicious – alchemy to concocting a winning film premise. It’s like “X” meets “Y,” maybe with a touch of […]
Is the director’s new release a career reboot? By T.T. Stern-Enzi photo: [l to r] Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie and Mark Wahlberg star in Michael Bay’s “Pain & Gain” “Pain & Gain” won the weekend box office race, earning the pole position with a smidge less than $20 million dollars. Not exactly a blistering opening weekend […]
We are interested to hear what you think. Please send us a message. [contact-form 4 “Opinion”]
You’ve seen it throughout your social media feed, you hear about a friend’s awesome class over a cup of coffee, […]
Summer is the perfect time to hit the water, and with more than 265 miles of water trails in the […]
The words “living legend” are often misapplied, usually to sports figures who haven’t really experienced enough of life to earn […]
Love them or hate them, the Grateful Dead were truly a one-of-a-kind band. During their thirty-year career as one of […]
Queensrÿche have spent their career defining a uniquely heavy progressive sound. Whether delivering Mindcrime, Empires or taking fans to the […]
