

Columns By Gary DretzkaDretzka@moviecitynews.com
The DVD Wrapup: Cold War, Betty Blue, Official Secrets, Demons, Olivia, American Dreamer, Land of Yik Yak
Cold War: Criterion Collection: Blu-ray Betty Blue: Criterion Collection: Blu-ray Although Paweł Pawlikowski’s highly personal Cold War (2018) could have been set in any number of Eastern European countries, during the first 15 years of the post-war era, the hint in the director’s surname tells us that most of the film, at least, takes place…
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: After the Wedding, Buñuel in the Labyrinth, Bliss, Nuke ’Em High Redux, Tel Aviv on Fire, They Are We, Hitchhikers, Far Country, Popstar, Truth … More
After the Wedding: Blu-ray In 2007, After the Wedding became the first Danish film in 16 years to be nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. The competition that year — The Lives of Others, Days of Glory, Water, Pan’s Labyrinth – was typically intense and Suzanne Bier and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen’s drama lost…
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls’ Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More
Ophelia: Blu-ray Shakespearian purists may not appreciate the liberties taken by director Claire McCarthy (The Waiting City) and screenwriter Semi Chellas (“Mad Men”) in their portrayal of one of the Bard’s most enduring and enigmatic characters, but there’s no denying Ophelia’s many sensory pleasures. Set inside and around the medieval Křivoklát Castle, in the central…
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Lion King, Sisters of Wilderness, My Son, Martin Guerre, Jirga, Horror Guide Part II, Harmonia, Bunuel’s Susana … More
Visually, Favreau admits to being influenced by Julie Taymor’s transcendent stage adaptation of The Lion King. … The things that fooled me, however, were the lifelike appearance, personalities and movement of the hyper-realistic animals.
Read the full article »Holiday Horror Gift Guide: Midsommar, NEKRomantik, Malvolence, Hill House, Killer Sofa, Devil’s Revenge, Killer Nun, Drone, China Beach, MSTK3 … More
For most of its 147-minute length, Midsommar more closely resembles “Brigadoon” than such classics as The Wicker Man or The Last House on the Left, to which Aster also owes a debt of gratitude.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Toy Story 4, Wedding Guest, Genius Party, Family, Ice King, Ulysses and Mona, 900 Days, At War, Toys Not For Children, Peeps … More
If it sometimes appeared as if ‘TS4’ snuck up on the media … kids were fully cognizant of the fact that the animated characters play a more essential role in a series’ success than actors who voice them.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Quiet One, Maiden, Itsy Bitsy, Killer Croc, Silent Revolution, Light of My Life, Spare a Dime?, Wax Mask, Prey, Aftermath, Sesame Street … More
If Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones ever decide to make a feature-length encore for “Detectorists,” I’d love to see Wyman in a cameo with his patented metal detector.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: The Circus, J.C.’s Vampires, Bucket of Blood, Tracker, Black String, Major/Minor, Find Me Guilty, Pitching In … More
It not only represents the last film Charles Chaplin made during the silent era, but also the least heralded and most troubled of his masterpieces. Its production was so traumatic, in fact, that Chaplin left it out of his autobiography.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Country Music, Cassandro, Hana & Alice, Hesburgh, Bottom of 9th, Chicago Cab, Socrates, Intimacy, Noir Archive III, In the Aisles, Midsomer … More
The wonderfully nostalgic, exhaustively researched, historically relevant and brilliantly produced series is broken into eight episodes, representing overlapping periods in the evolution of the genre …
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: JW3, Aladdin 4K, Third Wife, Daybreakers, Echo in the Canyon, Rabbi Jacob, Lock Up, Mayday … More
Even though Keanu Reeves deserves much of the credit for the series’ continuing success, there’s something else going on here.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Rocketman, Last Black Man, Tasteless, Pixelia, Cruising, Handkerchiefs, Kiarostami, Ozu, More Manson, Planets, Straight Forward … More
A possible three-peat for rock biopics could have the same effect on the Oscar-cast’s slumping ratings as a bona-fide Triple Crown contender has on ratings for the Belmont Stakes.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: All Is True, Patrick Swayze, Harder They Come, Aniara, Alice Guy-Blache, Akio Jissoji, Orcas, Ronja, Walking Dead … More
I wonder how many of the teenagers who dug ‘Romeo + Juliet’ and ‘O’ in theaters or on video enrolled in Shakespeare courses in college and went on to support local theater companies.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Endgame, White Crow, Vault, Trial by Fire, Shiraz, Keaton, Rafiki, Damned Summer, Anti-Nowhere League. … More
By bringing back hundreds of Marvel characters, actors and voicing talent – from Dr. Stephen Strange and Spider-Man, to Nick Fury and Groot – ‘Endgame’ effectively serves as a monumental memorial to franchise co-creator Stan Lee, who died last November, at 95.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Charlie Says, Reflecting Skin, Girl in the Fog, Souvenir, Girls of the Sun, Deep Space Nine, Sweet Alice, Penguin Highway, Jamestown, Patrick Melrose … More
The motivations behind such slaughter remain unfathomable. It was a freakish occurrence in the Season of the Witch … far less portentous than the current wave of massacres at Walmarts, schools and garlic festivals.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Long Shot, Mountain Rest, Brighton Rock, Wildland, Ayiti Mon Amour, Hammer, Leopard Man, Woodstock, Manhunt and more
The filmmakers took an unlikely, illogical and intermittently off-putting concept and delivered a commercial comedy that should have done better at the domestic and international box office than barely break even.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Ash Is Purest White, Fast Color, Dogman, High Life, Space 1999, Big Bad Fox, Fassbinder’s BRD, Klute, Baker’s Wife, Noir Archive, Master Z, Keaton 2, Hellboy 4K … More
Qiao’s pursuit takes her on a ferryboat ride down a scenic stretch of the Yangtze River, to a city that soon will be swallowed by the rising waters behind the Three Gorges Dam. Millions of people will be displaced to feed the country’s insatiable appetite for electrical power.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Facets, Eliana, Moullet, Pet Sematary, The Loveless, Transit, Kanarie, Escape Plan 3, Island Earth, Tough Ones, Pretenders, Broad City … More
In 1978, the odds of Facets succeeding against the Goliaths were roughly the same as the Cubs making the World Series. Both persevered, however.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: War & Peace, Heiresses, Styx, Maze, Felix Austria, Winter Passage, Fatso, Horror, 24-Hour Party People, FM, Cavett’s Baseball Heroes … More
The USSR must have been pretty flush, if it could afford to send ballistic missiles to Cuba and greenlight one of the most expensive movie epics of all time … anywhere.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Slaughterhouse Rulez, Silver Lake, Dark Sense, Swing Kids, Cherry Grove, Karloff/Lugosi, Running Man, Between the Lines, Crypto … More
What begins as a darkish teen comedy, set in an elite British boarding school, makes an abrupt midcourse correction by adding monsters, a corrupt dean and fracking, of all things.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Michelin Stars, Captain Marvel, Sower, Cielo, Frank in Palm Springs, Swing Time, Can’t Stop the Music, Entity, Blood … More
Although professional sports may have next to nothing to do with haute cuisine and fine dining experiences, the awarding of a Michelin Star to a world-class restaurant may be as significant as any trophy … OK, there’s the Oscars.
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