Lady Bird (R) ***** It’s pronounced Ser-sha (Saoirse Ronan) and you better get used to saying it and hearing it because this performance is a showstopper. She is 23 but in this marvelous film she is 17 and 18, called…
Category: Mike at the Movies
Mike at the Movies
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (R) ***** Don’t be shocked if this black comedy wins the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actress. It is that good. Our capacity audience applauded scenes, and when credits ran, individual actors were…
Mike at the Movies
Murder on the Orient Express (PG-13) ***** Haris Zambarloukos is a name that you will not see unless you’re looking for “Cinematographer” for this remarkable film, yet he is as important as the stars. There are many of those, beginning…
Mike at the Movies
Only the Brave (PG-13) **** A bear on fire is the symbol of the forest fire that haunts Superintendent Eric Marsh (Josh Brolin). It appears twice in the movie, once as a prelude to terror and another time as the…
Mike at the Movies
Blade Runner 2049 (R) **** With terrific sound, stunning visuals and good actors at the top of their game, this film is still a huge puzzlement. First a note: Replicants come in two types, old replicants that are bad and…
Mike at the Movies
Victoria and Abdul (PG-13) ***** This film earned its fifth star from me just by casting Judi Dench as Queen Victoria. The other masterstroke was casting Ali Fazal, famed Bollywood actor in India, as Abdul Karim, the man who became…
Mike at the Movies
Home Again (PG-13) **** The summer has ended for most of us without a great romance. Sad to say, “Home Again” isn’t a great summer romance, but “it will serve.” Reese Witherspoon (Alice) celebrates her 40th birthday with friends as…
Mike at the Movies
Wind River (R) **** This is one violent, harsh, forbidding film. Jeremy Renner anchors the piece as Cory Lambert, Fish and Wildlife agent in Wind River, Wyoming. The time is winter and Lambert discovers the body of a young Indian…
Mike at the Movies
The Glass Castle (R) ***** I just knew there had to be one movie out there that would make the summer great and I have seen it. This film grabs your heart and your mind and, through totally absorbing performances,…
Mike at the Movies
Dunkirk (PG-13) ***** Perhaps the strongest battle film since “Saving Private Ryan,” this one is drawn from stories of Dunkirk, the famous small-ship rescue of 330,000 British, Belgian and French forces from the small French seaside town of Dunkirk in…