12 September
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THE GOLDFINCH Director: John CrowleyStarring: Oakes Fegley, Ansel Elgort, Finn Wolfhard, Nicole Kidman, Jeffrey Wright, Luke Wilson, Sarah Paulson, Aneurin Barnard If you’ve read Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, you are familiar with the sweeping gut punch she lays out in her story about Theo Decker. Too bad the film adaptation is missing all of that. When Theo was a kid, his mother took him to an art museum that forever changed their lives. A terrorist explosion took the lives of Theo’s mother and many others. He survived but has been plagued with guilt since that fateful event. The only thing keeping him connectedRead More →

03 June
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THE GOLDFINCH Director: John CrowleyStarring: Ansel Elgort, Oakes Fegley, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson, Finn Wolfhard, Willa Fitzgerald, Luke Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, Denis O’Hare The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt has been passed around from book club to book club. My mother-in-law absolutely loved it and couldn’t put it down. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014. The film adaptation is now here with a wonderful cast including: Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars), Oakes Fegley (Wonderstruck), Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story) and Nicole “rip my heart out” Kidman. Per the Warner Bros. website “Theodore “Theo” Decker was 13 years oldRead More →

04 April
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PET SEMATARY Director: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis WidmyerStarring: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, John Lithgow, Jeté Laurence, Hugo Lavoie, Lucas Lavoie Louis Creed (Clarke) and his wife Rachel (Seimetz) move their family from Boston to Ludlow, Maine when he gets a new job as a physician. Their new home causes Rachel some PTSD regarding the death of her sister. Their daughter, Ellie (Laurence), discovers an animal burial ground located on their property line. It’s used by the local kids who named it “Pet Sematary,” hence the misspelling. Jud Crandall (Lithgow), the Creed’s lone neighbor, is a bit grizzly and knows all about the town’s history regarding this cemetery.Read More →

12 April
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RAMPAGE Director: Brad Peyton Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Ackerman, Jake Lacy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Joe Manganiello, P.J. Byrne Rampage is pure absurdity, but you already know that going in. You don’t go into a movie like this for high art. In the world of Rampage, advanced science has gotten to the point where genetic editing has officially become a weapon of mass destruction. Maybe that’s why it’s sequestered to outer space as the film opens. Pure lunacy, of course, so just go along with it. A space station carrying samples of genetic coding suffers a freak accident and explodes scattering the canisters containingRead More →

08 March
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A WRINKLE IN TIME Director: Ava DuVernay Starring: Storm Reid, Deric McCabe, Levi Miller, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Pine, Michael Peña, André Holland Readers have cherished “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeline L’Engle for decades since its release in 1962. It was groundbreaking at the time for attempting a sci-fi, fantasy story for young readers much like we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years with the increased attention to the YA formula. It’s now been given the big screen treatment thanks to Disney and Selma director Ava DuVernay. Fourteen-year-old Meg (Reid) and her younger brother Charles Wallace (McCabe)Read More →

09 November
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MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS Director: Kenneth Branagh Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Leslie Odom Jr, Daisy Ridley, Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi, Lucy Boynton, Sergei Polunin When you have an all-star cast consisting of Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, and Penelope Cruz, to name a few, it’s imperative to use them well. It’s a shame that the ensemble remake of Murder on the Orient Express fails to do so. Kenneth Branagh stars as detective Hercule Poirot who is in between cases after solving a mystery in Jerusalem. If you’re unfamiliar with the classic AgathaRead More →

25 October
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WONDERSTRUCK Director: Todd Haynes Starring: Oakes Fegley, Millicent Simmonds, Julianne Moore, Jaden Michael, Tom Noonan, Michelle Williams, Cory Michael Smith, Damian Young Director Todd Haynes’ previous films have tackled some heavy adult subjects involving identity and sexuality in the 1950s (Carol, Far From Heaven), rock icons (I’m Not There, Velvet Goldmine, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story), and a remake of a Joan Crawford classic (Mildred Pierce). With Wonderstruck, he has made his first film catered to all audiences. That’s not to say it’s a straight up kids movie, but one that parents and their children will no doubt be moved and inspired by, much likeRead More →

14 September
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AMERICAN ASSASSIN Director: Michael Cuesta Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Taylor Kitsch, Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar Dylan O’Brien is best known for his teen friendly roles in the YA genre whether it’s MTV’s Teen Wolf or The Maze Runner franchise. It’s evident that with American Assassin he’s ready to shed that innocent side of him for grittier material. He plays Mitch Rapp, the lead character in a series of books from Vince Flynn. This book was his eleventh in the series but tells the origin story of Rapp. It’s a great starting off point for a potential new action series. It all started on aRead More →

07 September
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IT Director: Andy Muschietti Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff This seems to be the year of highly anticipated Stephen King adaptions. His works are highly cherished by his fans, so there is always a concern that the film won’t be able to live up to the story us readers have envisioned for the years we have spent devouring his characters time and time again. The Dark Tower disappointed earlier this summer, but IT does not fall victim to that. Trust me. It’s my favorite book of all time. My hardcover isRead More →

03 August
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THE DARK TOWER Director: Nikolaj Arcel Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Dennis Haysbert, Fran Kranz, Jackie Earle Haley It was hard for me to not go into The Dark Tower with a little bit of bias. I consider myself a lifelong and devoted fan of Stephen King, yet this eight book series isn’t as deep in my DNA like some of his other works. I’m currently in the middle of reading the series for the first time. It’s an immensely rich universe that asks a lot out of its readers, but the end product is so rewarding. I say this all as aRead More →