Movie Reviews

In 2020, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson published the sociological study "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents." In adapting Wilkerson's work to create the biographical drama "Origin" (Neon), writer-director Ava DuVernay adopts an unusual approach to her source material.

The musical comedy "Mean Girls" (Paramount) comes with a more than two decade-long pedigree through all of which one unifying factor can be identified. The film is adapted by screenwriter Tina Fey from the Broadway theater version of the eponymous 2004 film, both of which she also penned.

In his classic 1945 novel "Brideshead Revisited," Catholic author Evelyn Waugh charted the intense, quasi-romantic and possibly sexual bond between two male students at Oxford University. The premise of Waugh's work is echoed in the black comedy "Saltburn" (Amazon MGM).

Cultivating bees may be regarded as a rather peaceful and meditative pursuit. But that doesn't stop the title character of the preposterous action flick "The Beekeeper" (Amazon MGM) from going berserk when provoked.

The tangled personal life of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) provides the subject matter for the fact-based drama "Maestro" (Netflix). Director, co-writer and star Bradley Cooper takes a sober approach to this sensitive topic. But his film adopts no decided moral stance, making it inappropriate for youthful viewers.

A menagerie of special effects aimlessly searching for a coherent plot is the most concise way to sum up “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (Warner Bros.), the sequel to 2018’s immensely successful “Aquaman.”

In 2013, Daniel James Brown published a non-fiction novel about a Depression-era crew team that had an unlooked-for rendezvous with destiny. The book went on to become a bestseller and now arrives on screen, under George Clooney's direction, as "The Boys in the Boat" (Amazon MGM).

Since his first appearance in author Roald Dahl’s 1964 children's novel, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," magical confectioner Willy Wonka has become an iconic cultural figure. That applies both to the printed page and to the big screen where he has been played – in very different keys – by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp.