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 […]
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 […]
Jeff Nichols slings Matthew McConaughey at us and we can’t get enough of him By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland and Matthew McConaughey on the run in “Mud”; Rating: PG-13 Grade: B+ Every critic out there has been talking about the recent transformation of Matthew McConaughey; we simply can’t stop going on about the […]
But what does that teach us about our collective past our current selves? By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford star in the Jackie Robinson biopic, “42” Prior to attending the recent press screening of writer-director Brian Helgeland’s sports biopic, I experienced a low-level sense of dread, the same sensation that arises anytime there’s […]
Local filmmaker Henrique Couto is ready to shoot his own close-up By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: “Babysitter Massacre” filmaker Henrique Couto [second from left] with his cast; photo credit: Alicia Lozier During a recent multiple screening day, I had the chance to catch the new Sam Raimi-produced “Evil Dead” followed by a first look at the latest […]
Assessing the state of Tyler Perry’s filmmaking By T. T. Stern-Enzi Photo: [l to] Kim Kardashian, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Vanessa Williams and Robbie Jones in “Tyler Perry’s Temptation” Rating: PG-13 Grade: D Tyler Perry has become a brand, with his name affixed to the titles of his releases and a loyal following, but he has been constantly […]
Oscar-nominated documentary interviews former heads of Israel’s Shin Bet By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: Director Dror Moreh looks at Israeli security in “The Gatekeepers” Rating: PG-13 Grade: A The commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War has re-introduced heated debate over the Bush Administration’s presentation of clearly false information regarding Iraq’s weapons […]
Director Chan-wook Park’s sinister English language debut translates well By T.T. Stern-Enzi Photo: [l to r] Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode star in “Stoker” Rating: R Grade: A In dreamy bit of voiceover narration at the start, India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) tells us, “we are not responsible for what we have come to be,” and […]
Love thaws the ice queen with the Dayton Opera The scale and spectacle of Turandot is something not to be […]
Dayton Philharmonic backs prodigy Jackie Evancho at Schuster Jackie Evancho will sing opera favorites as well as her new more […]
DVAC auction returns to Sinclair’s Ponitz Center Attendees can appreciate local artists while socializing with their friends and family. By […]
Tracy McElfresh sews, up-cycles, and blogs her fashion forward McElfresh is fan of vivid colors and bold patterns in her […]
Dayton Funk Forever brings the spirit of 70s soul to Oscar’s (L-R) Joseph Hamp, Patrick Coyne, Brandon Guthrie, Adam Uhlenhake, […]
