The Problem With Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Godmother

Last time I wrote about the way Hispanic actors and actresses are shoved into stereotyped roles, people got frustrated. But guess what? A lot of people are just as frustrated by the fact that a beautiful Welsh actress just got handed a role that should have certainly gone to someone…

Demonic Doll Movie Annabelle Is Surprisingly Unnerving

Annabelle, an effective prequel to horror pastiche The Conjuring, surpasses its predecessor simply by virtue of occasionally being scary. Both films are over-reliant on deafening sound effects and side-eye glimpses of underwhelming ghosts. But Annabelle’s scare scenes are better paced and more thoughtfully lensed. Its hokey, funhouse-worthy spooks — a…

Gone Girl Is Smartly Crafted, Well Acted, and a Bit Too Slick

Everything about Gone Girl, David Fincher’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s enormously popular 2012 thriller about a deteriorating marriage and a wife gone missing, is precise and thoughtful — it’s as well planned as the perfect murder, with its share of vicious, shivery delights. But at the end of the perfect…

One (Huge) Love for the Nas Documentary Time Is Illmatic

One rhyme in particular crystallizes the genius of Nas’s 1994 classic Illmatic. It comes in the song “One Love,” which takes the form of a letter to a friend in prison: “Congratulations, you know you got a son,” Nas raps. “I heard he looks like ya, why don’t your lady…

Left Behind Is Sinfully Boring

Every child who’s thrown a tantrum, packed a bag and plotted to run away has shivered with the same vengeful thought: I wish I could see how sad they’ll be when I’m gone. The Left Behind franchise implies that evangelicals haven’t grown up. This new film version, the latest in…

Luxury Dine-In Cinema Coming to Brickell City Centre

If you thought Miami movie-going couldn’t get better than a plastic cup of wine at Paragon Grove theater, think again. Soon, Brickell will have its very own luxury dine-in cinema, courtesy of Mexico City-based Cinemex. Developer Swire Properties Inc. announced this week that Cinemex will open its first cinema in…

Grub-Eating Boxtrolls Thrive in Moral Grayness

The Boxtrolls is a kiddie charmer that makes you laugh, cower, and think of Hitler. That’s an unusual trifecta, but then again, this is an unusual film. If the German Expressionists were skilled at stop-motion animation, they’d have already made it. This is cartoon Caligari, a fable set on a…