Reviews written by Trish Smith
Wanka marks a significant departure from the conventional tropes we often associate with the fantasy genre. Directed by the imaginative and audacious filmmaker Jonathan Prentiss, the film reimagines the classic tale of Willy Wonka and his enigmatic chocolate factory through a bold lens, blending whimsical fantasy with darker, more...
The 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once is a breathtaking cinematic journey that defies the constraints of genre, narrative, and even time itself. Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as the Daniels, this film is a mind-bending exploration of identity, family, love, and the multiverse....
Woody Allen's A Rainy Day in New York arrived amidst a flurry of controversy and mixed expectations. The film, which was completed in 2018 but released in 2019 after significant delays, marked Allen’s return to the romantic comedy genre, a territory he had made iconic with works such as...
Emma, directed by Autumn de Wilde, brought a fresh and delightful adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel to the big screen. While Austen's work has been adapted numerous times, de Wilde’s version offers a unique and vibrant take on the classic, with striking visuals, witty dialogue, and a sharp...
The original movie, “Predator,” follows Dutch (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier who was hired by the United States government to rescue a group of politicians from South America. Upon arrival Dutch and his team find the men they were meant to rescue killed. The group soon discover they...
It is at the prison break scene in the movie that I realized Black Widow was going to be another superhero movie filled with things we’ve seen again and again. Don’t get me wrong, I love a big bang sky threat, but in this film, the spectacle overshadows some...
Liam Neeson plays ex-spook Bryan Mills, who is on the phone with his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), when she and her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy) are abducted by members of what proves to be a group of Albanian traders in gullible young women. After some histrionics from Bryan’s...
If you’re looking for a short movie that contains drugs, gore and drama, all without losing its comedic heart and absurdist elements, look no further than “Cocaine Bear,” a comedy-drama directed by Elizabeth Banks and, notably, Ray Liotta’s first posthumous release. The story is (very) loosely based on a...
Thelma is the best comedy of 2024. And not just because when I screened it this week, by myself, on a computer, under the waning influence of a rotten cold and in no mood to enjoy myself, I still laughed out loud, early and often: The movie uplifted me...
I recently saw this movie for the first time when I rented it on Amazon Prime. Renting movies on Amazon Prime and YouTube brings back memories of when my dad used to take me to Blockbuster on Fridays. The Bad News Bears is a tremendous Sports/Comedy film. It’s crazy...
There are only a few gangster movies that will stand the test of time, and this is one of them. The movie tells the story of five decades in the lives of four gangsters from New York City — childhood friends who are merciless criminals almost from the first,...
While I wouldn’t consider myself to be a huge fan of vampires, I have nothing against the fanged fiends provided the stories within which they’re planted make good use of their lore and inherent traits. I tend to steer away from horror, but I can make exceptions if the...
Mike Figgis’ 1995 Leaving Las Vegas bottles these feelings, distilling them into a tragic, romantic, hopeless tale of two lost souls who find themselves on The Strip, find each other in life, and find their eventual love an impossible hope. I usually give most Nicolas Cage movies...
Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart” is a full-throated, red-blooded battle epic about William Wallace, the legendary Scots warrior who led his nation into battle against the English in the years around 1300. It’s an ambitious film, big on simple emotions like love, patriotism and treachery, and avoids the travelogue style of...
I think I should start by stating that I was hungry for this film, the book Prozac Nation, which chronicles Elizabeth Wurtzel's battle with depression, meant so much to me and each delay to the film (and there were many) only served to increase my desire to see it....
Caught on the cusp of adolescence and adulthood, the three young women in the film are all different, but face parallel crises related to family, love, sex and ambition. Through exceptional acting, thoughtful writing and beautiful cinematography, Girl Picture conveys both the outer and inner states of its characters...
Sophia Coppola’s second movie as a director is more than a breakthrough: it’s an insouciant triumph. She conjures a terrifically funny, heartbreakingly sad and swooningly romantic movie from almost nowhere and just makes it look very easy - as well as very modern and very sexy. Bill...
This movie was hilarious. Paul Giamatti should have gotten an oscar for his portal of a middle-aged man going thru a mid-life crisus. Virginia MAdson also gave an amzing performance as his love interest. The movie has some of the funniest scenes I've seen in a long time. Two...
This movie is Russel Crow's best. It is based on a true story. It is a love story more than anything else. Jennnifer Connelly does an amazing jo as the love interest in this film. Things happen in this movie that you don't expect, which I really like in...
This is my favorite Dustin Hoffman movie. There is a reason he won an award for his role in this. He plays an autistic person to an incredible degree, while at the same able to invoke humor into a lot of his scenes. Tom Cruise also does a very...
J. Robert Oppenheimer is the latest of these men, though in this case his focus is one the world is willing to bend itself around. When Robert, played in Oppenheimer by Cillian Murphy at his most angular, gets appointed as head of the Manhattan Project, he has...
To Catch a Killer is a cold and numb view of humanity. Under the explosive booms of fireworks on New Year’s Eve, 29 people are shot and killed, without pattern, leaving the investigative team in the dark, grasping at paper thin straws of evidence. Shailene Woodley plays Eleanor Falco,...
The Flood is written by Chad Law (Section 8) and Josh Ridgway (Howlers) and directed by Brandon Slagle (The Black Dahlia Haunting), who—surprising fun fact—began his career as a heavy metal vocalist. Starring Nicky Whelan (Maneater) and Casper Van Dien (The Most Dangerous Game), the movie centers on a...
In Another Year, Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen play a long-married middle-class London couple heading into early old age. Tom and Gerri hold jobs typical of old hippie lefties -- he's a geologist who shores up London's ancient sewage system; she's a counselor at a National Health...
The movie follows Chloe (Bailee Madison), a criminology student facing eviction from her home. In a bid to help, her younger brother T.J. (Anthony Turpel) teams up with her ex-boyfriend Ross (Chris Lee) to turn to crime to pay the bills as they plan a robbery. However,...