Author: By Ann HOrnaday The Washington Post
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Movie review: Revisiting Fred Rogers’ appeal for civility
Starring Joanne Rogers, Betty Aberlin, McColm Cephas Jr.; directed by Morgan Neville; 93 minutes; PG-13 for some nature thematic elements and strong language. Grade: A+ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” Morgan Neville’s admiring portrait of public television pioneer Fred Rogers, feels reverse-engineered to soothe the rapidly fraying nerves of a country mired in political and…
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Movie review: ‘Tag’ is a fun yet forgettable bromantic comedy with a nimble cast
“Tag,” a genial comedy about best buds who have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years, is about arrested adolescence at its core. And this haphazard collection of setups, stunts and gags has that same scattershot, digressive energy. The best way to appreciate this fitfully funny collection of japes and jests is…
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Movie review: This new flick gets right everything that ‘Mother!’ got wrong
Starring Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Philip Ettinger, Cedric the Entertainer; directed by Paul Schrader; 113 minutes; R for some disturbing violent images. “First Reformed,” an austere drama of one man’s apocalyptic crisis of faith, feels like the movie Paul Schrader was put on this planet to make. As a tense study in spiritual pain and…
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Movie review: ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ portrays the early Christian community at its most fragile
Starring James Faulkner, Jim Caviezel, Olivier Martinez, Joanne Whalley, John Lynch; directed by Andrew Hyatt; 107 minutes; PG-13 for some violence and disturbing images. “Paul, Apostle of Christ” is a portrait of the titular Christian convert and leader of the early church as he faces imprisonment and martyrdom at the hands of Roman oppressors. This…
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‘The Eagle Huntress’: A real-life heroine proves her mettle
Starring Aisholpan Nurgaiv, Daisy Ridley, Rys Nurgaiv; directed by Otto Bell; 87 minutes; G – contains nothing objectionable Aisholpan Nurgaiv is a 13-year-old living with her nomadic family in Mongolia’s Altai mountains, a harsh, unforgiving place of isolation and physical duress. For centuries, her Kazakh family’s tribe has hunted for food and fur with the…
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‘Amanda Knox’ catches up with a murder suspect, now older and wiser
As a crisp, straightforward digest of a lurid, true-crime story that sprawled over 10 years, the Netflix documentary “Amanda Knox” deserves credit for concision. This swift, densely economical film by Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn might seem redundant to those who hung on every word of the case involving the title character, an American college…
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A different depiction of faith is gracing the big screen
What makes a movie Christian? The answer to that question has taken myriad forms in 2016, a year that has encompassed the Coen brothers’ extravagant parody of 1950s Hollywood Bible kitsch (and sincere portrayal of discernment) in “Hail, Caesar!,” the modern-day dramas “God’s Not Dead 2” and “Miracles From Heaven,” and the period pieces “Risen”…
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How Jodie Foster stays one of the most ‘real’ stars in Hollywood
Jodie Foster is on point. Mere minutes into conversation and she’s talking politics, specifically as they pertain to “Money Monster,” a timely thriller she has directed that takes place within the vortex of economic insecurity now decimating the middle class. It’s impossible to watch “Money Monster,” which stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts and opens…