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| Frances McDormand & Woody Harrelson (r) star in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri |
From our friend, Arch Campbell...
Lady Bird - 4 Stars. Greta Gerwig directs a spot-on mother/daughter battle, during a young woman's high school senior year. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf deliver award-worthy performances.
Best New Bet > Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 4 stars. Caustic, often shock comedy, starring Frances McDormand as a woman at war with the town police over the unsolved murder of her daughter.
Mudbound - 3½ Stars. Epic drama of poor, white farmers and poor, black sharecroppers in the post-WWII South.
Thank You for Your Service - 3½ Stars. Miles Teller as an Iraq war veteran, struggling with PTSD. Includes a break out performance by little-known actor Beulah Koale. Based on a veteran's memoir.
Blade Runner 2049 - 3 Stars. Sequel to the classic runs long, but packs in the special effects around a thick & juicy plot.
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| Arch Campbell with Will Ferrell & Zach Galifianakis (r) |
It - 3 Stars. Stephen King thriller delivers.
American Made - 3 Stars. Tom Cruise is winning, in the memoir of a bored pilot who goes to work for the CIA.
Battle of the Sexes - 3 Stars. Emma Stone and Steve Carell recreate the Billy Jean King/Bobby Riggs, male versus female tennis match of the early 70s.
LBJ - 3 Stars. Woody Harrelson creates a sympathetic portrait of the formidable politician, assuming power after the Kennedy assassination, and passing the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. Rob Reiner directs.
Murder on the Orient Express - 2½ Stars. Hammy but loving remake of the 1974 Agatha Christie classic.
Last Flag Flying - 2½ Stars. Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Carell as Vietnam vets, who help Carell bury his son killed on duty in Iraq.
Justice League - 2 Stars. Charismatic Gal Gadot returns as Wonder Woman, and joins Batman and several others in another of the usual formula plots to save the world.
Thor: Ragnarok - 2 Stars. The latest chapter in Marvel's Thor franchise mixes comedy and action in an overlong, sometimes confusing package.
Loving Vincent - 2 Stars. Beautifully animates Van Gogh's masterpieces, but sets them to a back engineered hokey story.
A Bad Moms Christmas - 2 Stars. Mila Kunis and friends vow to prevent holiday hassle. Follows the formula set by 'The Hangover" and "Bridesmaids."
Victoria & Abdul - 2 Stars. Judi Dench (as Queen Victoria) grows fond of an Indian commoner, shocking her royal household. Lightweight stuff.
Suburbicon - 1 Star. George Clooney directs a dark tale of white suburbia in the late 1950s. The result is unfunny and unsubtle, without a shred of enlightenment.
Visit Arch's website for his (unrivaled) take on movies. He remains the only other (we're not self-hating) critic, whose opinion we admire and respect.
