TV amp; Movies Reviews

Two long shadows hang over Clarice, the new CBS drama following FBI agent Clarice Starling in the aftermath of her showdown with serial killer Buffalo Bill. The first shadow is cast by The Silence of the Lambs, the 1991 film that swept the top five Academy Awards categories that year, …

Life’s too short to make this review long. So, in the nature of Sam Levinson’s Malcolm & Marie — which, mercifully, jumps right to it — let’s dive right in. It’s a film-length argument between Malcolm (John David Washington), a filmmaker who’s just premiered a new movie, and Marie (Zendaya), …

The first surprise was that David Fincher, Hollywood’s master-influencer of stylish, impeccably-designed thrillers, was making a movie about… the writing of a screenplay. A jarring match-up — even if the screenplay in question is Citizen Kane, and even if the debate over Kane’s authorship, in which Orson Welles’ contribution became …

Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. A gothic, Dakotan rescue mission. A bit of loss, and a bit of crass, mean mugging from a helmut-haired Lesley Manville. Add a dash of violence, of course — it’s a pretty good recipe. And writer/director Thomas Bezucha’s Let Him Go, an adaptation of novelist …

“Critics are the worst kind of humans,” says Jemaine Clement in the role of David Kirkpatrick, a horndog college professor trying to comfort Kate Conklin (Gillian Jacobs), a former student whose first novel has just been savaged in The New York Times as an “amateurish beach read.” But the critic …

Early in Amazon Prime Video’s new sci-fi comedy Upload, a character explains that her grandmother is in heaven. “Which one?” she’s asked. The question makes sense within the context of the near future depicted in Upload, where tech companies can — for the right price — digitize human consciousness and …

Some have dubbed the man “the da Vinci of deals” and “the Monet of money.” Some have referred to this public figure by more tabloid-friendly handles like “Sir Shifty.” Others simply call him “a bottom feeder” and “a tapeworm.” Whether people think he’s the ultimate capitalism success story or simply …

If you want to see what great acting is, watch Alfre Woodard deliver a master class in Clemency. In this shattering second feature from writer-director Chinonye Chukwu (alaskaLand) — which earlier this year made her the first black woman to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance — Woodard plays …

Cynthia Erivo captures the spirit of Underground Railroad freedom fighter Harriet Tubman with enough ferocity and feeling to set this biopic soaring. The passionate acting of this British dynamo — a Tony winner for The Color Purple on Broadway — comes in handy when the film itself threatens to trip …

The title of the wonderful new OWN drama David Makes Man is slightly misleading. Yes, it’s about a 14-year-old boy named David (Akili McDowell) struggling to become a man faster than he should have to, due to the complicated circumstances of his life. But David is just one of several …