Mamet makes a reader work in crime novel ‘Chicago’ (2018)
Mamet Monday (Book review): Mamet makes a reader work, but it’s worth the effort in this 1920s crime novel.
Mystery
Mamet makes a reader work in crime novel ‘Chicago’ (2018)
‘Happy Death Day 2U’ wrings more fun out of ‘repeated day’ premise with clever genre-hop (Movie review)
It’s accurate to call “Happy Death Day 2U” a dumb movie, and accurate to call it a smart movie. It seems as if Blumhouse studio asked writer-director Christopher Landon (who also directed the 2017 original, […]
‘The Verdict’ (1982) a masterwork of the courtroom drama form
Mamet Monday (Movie review): This Mamet-Lumet collaboration is a masterful courtroom drama and redemption story.
Preston & Child’s ‘Verses for the Dead’ explores southern Florida and a puzzling string of deaths (Book review)
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child give Agent Pendergast a fresh start of sorts in his 18th novel, “Verses for the Dead” (December, hardcover). Series like the Constance trilogy and the Helen trilogy are conclusions to […]
‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ (1992) is searing, quotable and darkly funny
Mamet Monday (Movie review): Mamet pens a searing yet funny look at cutthroat white-collar workers.
‘The Black Dahlia’ (2006) gets explored as a comedy
Throwback Thursday (Movie review): Before “I Am the Night,” a 2006 film explored the Black Dahlia case with a different tone.
Korean film ‘Burning’ is a strong entry in the ‘What the heck is going on?’ subgenre (Movie review)
In the tradition of great Asian cinema, “Burning” (2018) is intensely strange and immensely engrossing. Fittingly, lead actor Ah-in Yoo, as Lee Jong-su, seems to barely be giving a performance, but we’re right there with […]
‘Spanish Prisoner’ (1997) a gripping long-con puzzle
Mamet Monday (Movie review): Campbell Scott stars as a man caught in a gripping puzzle he (and the viewer) can’t set aside until it’s solved.
‘ABC Murders’ miniseries reinvents Poirot
TV review: This miniseries is an interesting experiment. But I can’t shake the sense that John Malkovich is playing PINO — Poirot in Name Only.