Movies

Maligned 'Richard III' gets a movie makeover

The Met: Live in HD goes all Wagner on us

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There’s an exasperating trend in superhero movies that has reached the end of its shelf life and needs to be chucked. Back in the 2010s, a light touch on the tone seemed fresh and funny, with quippy, ironic dialogue popularized by Joss Whedon's “The Avengers” that felt revolutionary, and snarky, motor-mouthed performances from stars like Ryan Reynolds in “Deadpool” that were downright radical. But one whiff of the "Shazam!" sequel “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and you’ll find that this overly jokey approach is well past its expiration date.

Imagine "The Martian" - the 2015 Oscar-nominated survival drama starring Matt Damon as an astronaut who must use his wits to survive after he is stranded on the Red Planet - except this time the story takes place in an unoccupied luxury penthouse in Manhattan. The hero? An aesthete/art thief (Willem Dafoe) who has accidentally locked himself inside the place, with little besides the owner's art collection to keep him company. That, at least, is the bare bones of the movie "Inside."

Author tries to make sense of senseless war

Poitras documentary pits Goldin vs Sacklers

When the envelopes open at the 95th Oscars on Sunday, there will be at least one Idahoan in the audience with fingers crossed: Moscow-born-and-raised playwright turned screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter. Hunter wrote the script for the celebrated film “The Whale,” a drama about a morbidly obese man trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter, which has three nominations. The film is based on ...

Author probes North Dakota family mystery

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The Farrelly brothers — Peter and Bobby — reigned supreme over comedies of questionable taste in the 1990s and 2000s (“Dumb and Dumber,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Shallow Hal,” “Stuck on You”), but while brother Peter has gone on to the industry's highest success, picking up best original screenplay and best picture Oscars for his film “Green Book,” Bobby hasn’t directed a film in awhile. He makes his comeback with his “Kingpin” star Woody Harrelson in the sports comedy “Champions,” an English-language remake of the 2018 Spanish smash hit, the Goya Award-winning, “Campeones.”

It's tempting to call "Scream VI" - the latest installment in the long-running meta-slasher franchise, now set in New York City instead of the fictional Woodsboro, Mich., and featuring a whole gaggle of Ghostface killers - less of a fresh idea than a cynical exercise in boosting an existing intellectual property to make a buck. But including a line of dialogue in the new screenplay that does exactly that - an allusion to the bad habits of horror franchises, including the fictional "Stab" series, films-within-these-films that serve as stand-ins for the one you're watching - doesn't inoculate the makers of this latest chapter against accusations of trafficking in lazy formula.