Movie Reviews

The Women’s Balcony

Women fight a rabbi and their husbands’ prejudices

Diana Beechener

A close-knit Orthodox community in Jerusalem has gathered to celebrate a bar mitzvah. As the boy steps up to read the Torah, the congregation literally collapses around him. The women’s balcony falls. Among the injured is the rabbi’s wife. Faced with this tragedy, he suffers a psychotic breakdown and is incapable of visiting his wife in the hospital, let alone guiding his flock.

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– by Diana Beechener – 6/22/17

It Comes at Night

Fear is the monster in this clever psychological horror film

Diana Beechener

Disease is sweeping the country. How it started or can be prevented, these are mysteries. The only thing anyone knows for sure is that once you catch it, you’re dead. Paul (Joel Edgerton: Loving) is the patriarch of a family trying to survive this modern plague. He sequesters his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo: Alien: Covenant) and son in a cabin in the woods, banking on isolation to protect them from the disease that has nearly destroyed humanity. The family spends quiet days foraging for food, purifying water and keeping the house secure.

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– by Diana Beechener – 6/15/17

Wonder Woman

Women finally get their hero in this triumphant DC Comic adaptation

Diana Beechener

Amazons have thrived for centuries on the island of Themyscira, content to train for battle and broaden their minds with language and philosophy. This matriarchal society follows rules: no men and no leaving.

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– by Diana Beechener – 6/8/17

The Lovers

Infidelity might be the best way to mend a marriage

Diana Beechener

Mary (Debra Winger: The Ranch) and Michael (Tracy Letts: Divorce) are roommates who happen to be married. They barely speak, never eat together and sleep at far corners of the bed. Both seem utterly inconvenienced when they must occupy the same room.

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– by Diana Beechener – 6/1/17

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Better than average for a series that should have ended with the first film

Diana Beechener

Henry Turner (Brendan Thwaites: Gods of Egypt) grew up knowing that his father, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom: Unlocked) was cursed to spend eternity as Davey Jones’ replacement at the bottom of the sea. Obsessed with freeing dad and reuniting his family, he scours the legends of the sea for a loophole to allow his father to surface.

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– by Diana Beechener – 5/25/17

Alien: Covenant

Ridley Scott is more interested in philosophy than chills in this latest sequel

Diana Beechener

Leaving Earth in search of a habitable planet, The Covenant carries a crew of married couples plus 2,000 colonists and a few trays of embryos. While the crew and passengers hypersleep, android Walter (Michael Fassbender: Assassin’s Creed) cares for the ship. A disaster ends the crew’s slumbers. The crippled Covenant’s luck improves when the crew finds a habitable planet nearby. Shall they take a look?

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– by Diana Beechener – 5/18/17

Snatched

This mother-daughter comedy is good for a few laughs

Diana Beechener

Emily Middleton (Amy Schumer: Inside Amy Schumer) is a train wreck. Fired from her retail job and dumped by her boyfriend, she’s reduced to posting selfies on Instagram. Her digital success has not earned her friends, so her only willing companion on a non-refundable trip to Ecuador is her mother, Linda (Goldie Hawn: The Banger Sisters), the one person who has never told her no. A bit of a shut-in who still takes care of Emily’s agoraphobic man-child of a brother, Linda reluctantly agrees.

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– by Diana Beechener – 5/11/17

Sleight

This magician’s greatest trick is escaping a life of crime

Diana Beechener

The future looked bright for Bo (Jacob Latimore: Collateral Beauty), a brilliant student and talented magician. But his mother’s death turns his attention from college — where he gives up a free ride — to maintaining a stable home for his little sister. Performing street magic for tips won’t pay the mortgage, so Bo takes a more lucrative night job, selling drugs. He rationalizes his choice because he works for a gentleman dealer, Angelo (Dulé Hill: Ballers), who seems to be a cut above.

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– by Diana Beechener – 5/4/17

Free Fire

An arms deal goes hilariously wrong in this spirited spoof

Diana Beechener

In the 1970s, the IRA needs weapons to fight the English. Chris (Cillian Murphy: Anthropoid) and Frank (Michael Smiley: Rogue One) are charged with procuring machine guns. Gun broker Justine (Brie Larson: Kong: Skull Island) makes arrangements with fellow broker Ord (Armie Hammer: Nocturnal Animals) to meet with notoriously odd gun dealer Vernon (Sharlto Copley: Powers).

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– by Diana Beechener – 4/27/17

The Promise

Silly romance mars an important subject

Diana Beechener

In the mountain villages of Turkey, Mikael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac: X-Men: Apocalypse) is an apothecary with dreams of earning a medical degree. Financing his studies with the dowry from an arranged marriage, he promises to return to his fiancée in two years as a doctor.

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– by Diana Beechener – 4/20/17

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