Now Playing (in San Diego)

Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan's great, stunning, simple, deftly constructed
war movie, also a great political and existential movie.

DUNKIRK IS NOW PLAYING AT REGAL EDWARDS SAN MARCOS

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is actress Gloria Grahame's (Annette Bening)
last affair, with a Liverpool lad (Jamie Bell).

FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL IS NOW PLAYING AT ANGELIKA CARMEL MOUNTAIN

The Florida Project is a moving story of kids and adults living in an
Orlando motel, and its manager (Willem Dafoe).

THE FLORIDA PROJECT IS NOW PLAYING AT ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA

Get Out is Jordan Peele's sharp, crazy, funny horror movie of a photographer
lured into a strange evil suburban plot.

GET OUT IS NOW PLAYING AT ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA

Coco is a moving 3-D Dia de Muertos adventure for young Miguel, a guitarrista
misfit in a zapatero family with secrets.

COCO IS NOW PLAYING AT AMC MISSION VALLEY

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar is a stirring and beautiful history/documentary
of lemurs and their only remaining habitat.

ISLAND OF LEMURS: MADAGASCAR IS NOW PLAYING AT
GIANT DOME THEATER AT THE REUBEN H. FLEET SCIENCE CENTER

The Disaster Artist is James Franco's portrait of the auteur as a crazy man,
the making of Tommy Wiseau's The Room.

THE DISASTER ARTIST IS NOW PLAYING AT ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA

Lady Bird is Greta Gerwig's semi-autobiographical so-called life
as Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) in Sacramento circa 2002.

LADY BIRD IS NOW PLAYING AT ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA

The Post (2017) is Meryl Streep as Kay Graham and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee
of the Washington Post in a Pentagon Papers drama.

THE POST IS NOW PLAYING AT ULTRASTAR MISSION VALLEY

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is an unpredictable, free, grisly
look at human grief, with Frances McDormand.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI IS NOW PLAYING AT ARCLIGHT LA JOLLA

Wonder (2017) is Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie follow-up,
keeps his record of making characters seem like real people.

WONDER IS NOW PLAYING AT AMC FASHION VALLEY

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi is fun Star Wars action, a bit lunky,
very Kung Fu Panda but there's reasons.

Call Me by Your Name is an adaptation of a (better) novel of a love affair
of a young student and a grad student in Italy.

Phantom Thread is Paul Thomas Anderson's wacky drama of clothier
Throckwad Woodtick (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his true love.

All the Money in the World is Ridley Scott's Plummers-play-the-Gettys
movie of the '70s kidnapping of the mogul's grandson.

Hostiles (2017) is a here-exhausting, there-hypnotic attempt to jam together
several iconic Western true stories into one.

Proud Mary is sort of a blaxploitation tribute meets action crime melodrama
with Taraji P. Henson as the title gangster.

I, Tonya is the Tonya Harding story and the attack on Nancy Kerrigan
(Margot Robbie). Wait, Robbie plays Tonya? Whah-huh?

The Shape of Water is a great-to-look-at genre-bending love fable with
great music but false or missing notes in the story.

Molly's Game is Aaron Sorkin's fully narrated Citizen Kane of a
former athlete caught skimming semi-legal poker games.

The Commuter is the fourth, worst collaboration of Liam Neeson and director
Jaume Collet-Serra, from a brainless script.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is a trilogy wrapper an uneven series deserves.
SPOILER ALERT: Still as yet no cure for death.

New for Home Viewing

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is a bright abstract biopic of
the Wonder Woman creator's polyamorous relationship.

Blade Runner 2049 is a worthwhile sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 classic
of Deckard hunting androids, with Ryan Gosling.

I, Daniel Blake is a strident socialist manifesto kept from being too manipulative
by strong characters well acted.

Loving Vincent is a hand-painted animation of the world of Van Gogh's
paintings as a search for answers after his death.

Goodbye Christopher Robin is well-served by acting, less by old-age makeup,
plot frame in a story of "Pooh" author and son.

The Snowman is a rather dim, incomprehensible snowy murder mystery
(set in the English-speaking colony of modern Norway?).

The Killing of a Sacred Deer is regular horror but they don't consult
a demonologist. With badly affected performances.

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All original content appearing on this site Copyright Alex Christensen 1995-2018.
Images are used without permission, without intent to supplant the original works.
Undated reviews were written between 1995 and 2008.