Bombshell BOMBSHELL (2019) Starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, John Lithgow, Kate McKinnon, Connie Britton, Liv Hewson, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Mark Duplass, Rob Delaney, Malcolm McDowell, Allison Janney, Alice Eve, Stephen Root, Richard Kind, Robin Weigert, Amy Landecker, Mark Moses, D’Arcy Carden, Kevin Dorff, Anne Ramsay, Tricia Helfer and Jennifer Morrison. Screenplay by Charles Randolph. Directed by Jay Roach. Distributed by Lionsgate. 108 minutes. Rate

Official Secrets OFFICIAL SECRETS (2019) Starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Adam Bakri, Indira Varma, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, Conleth Hill, Tamsin Greig, Hattie Morahan, Ray Panthaki, Angus Wright, Chris Larkin, Monica Dolan, Jack Farthing, Clive Francis, John Heffernan, Kenneth Cranham, Darrell D’Silva, Janie Dee, MyAnna Buring, Chris Reilly, Shaun Dooley, Peter Guinness, Hanako Footman and Jeremy Northam. Screenplay by Sara Bernstein, Gregory Bernstein

Vice VICE (2018) Starring Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Jesse Plemons, Eddie Marsan, Shea Whigham, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Bill Camp, Lily Rabe, LisaGay Hamilton, Adam Bartley, Justin Kirk, Joseph Beck, Aidan Gail, Don McManus, Andrea Wright, Bob Stephenson, Jillian Armenante, Violet Hicks, Kirk Bovill, Kyle S. More, Matthew Jacobs, Angela Leib, Alfred Molina and Naomi Watts. Screenplay by Adam McKay. Directed by Adam McKay. Distributed by Annapurna

An Inconvenient Sequel – Truth to Power AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL – TRUTH TO POWER (2017) Featuring Al Gore, Dale Ross, Chris Hayes, Justin Trudeau and news footage of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merckel, Jim Inhof, Tom Rielly and Xi Jinping. Directed by Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk. Distributed by Paramount Pictures. 100 minutes. Rated PG. Now that Donald Trump has thrown the United States in with the other two banana

Tommy Chong Tommy Chong Getting America Stoned Again by Jay S. Jacobs The year is 2016.  The world is changing in ways that people could have never imagined.  A black man in President of the United States.  Gay marriage is the law of the land.  England has left the European Union.  A reality TV personality with a bad toupee is the Presidential nominee of one of the major political parties of the United States.  The other nominee is a woman.  Her main competition in the primar

Truth TRUTH (2015) Starring Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid,  Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach, John Benjamin Hickey, Dermot Mulroney,  Noni Hazlehurst, Philip Quast, David Lyons, Rachael Blake, Andrew McFarlane, Natalie Saleeba, Connor Burke and Chris Mulkey. Screenplay by James Vanderbilt. Directed by James Vanderbilt. Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.  121 minutes.  Rated R. Once upon a time, 60 Minutes was considered the grande

Capitalism – A Love Story CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY (2009) Featuring Michael Moore, Thora Birch, William Black, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Baron Hill, Marcy Kaptur, Wallace Shawn, Elizabeth Warren and archival footage of George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Davis, Martin Luther King, Helmut Kohl, Bela Lugosi, John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Robert Powell, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joseph Stalin. Written by Michael Moore. Direc

Spike Lee Spike Lee Knows What It Means to Miss New Orleans by Jay S. Jacobs Spike Lee has experienced many things in the twenty years since he exploded out of NYU with She’s Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing. His films have looked unflinchingly at some of the most polarizing subjects of modern life; race relations, drug abuse, inner city violence, religion, war profiteering, politics, prison, the sex trade, organized crime – the list goes on and on. However, nothing could

Death of a President DEATH OF A PRESIDENT  (2006) Starring Hend Ayoub, Becky Ann Baker, James Urbaniak, Brian Boland, Michael Reilly Burke, Neko Parham, Jay Whittaker, Chavez Ravine, Jay Patterson and footage of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. Screenplay by Gabriel Range and Simon Finch. Directed by Gabriel Range. Distributed by New Market Films.  90 minutes.  Rated R. Death of a President has gotten most – if not all – of its notoriety, because of its central conceit.  It is

Conventioneers CONVENTIONEERS (2006) Starring Matthew Mabe, Woodwyn Koons, Alek Friedman, Basil Stephens, Alicia Harding, Jennifer Brown, Krista Kujat, T. Sahara Meer, Trevor Murphy, Joe Schiappa, Damien Smith, Wayne Price, Robert O’Gorman, Matthew Korahais, Mike De Seve, John Lake, Michael Moore, George W Bush, George HW Bush and Al Franken. Screenplay by Mora Stephens and Joel Viertel. Directed by Mora Stephens. Distributed by Hyphenate Films.  95 minutes.  Not Rated. In mo

An Inconvenient Truth AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006) Starring Al Gore. Directed by Davis Guggenheim. Distributed by Paramount Pictures Classics.  100 minutes.  Rated PG. This is such a cliché that I hesitate to open this review with it, however in this case it is nearly impossible to avoid.  An Inconvenient Truth may very well be the most important movie that you will ever see. No matter where you come down on the political divide or what you think of former Vice President (arg

American Dreamz AMERICAN DREAMZ (2006) Starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Sam Golzari, Willem Dafoe, Chris Klein, Jennifer Coolidge, Tony Yalda, Marcia Gay Harden, Seth Meyers, Bernard White, Adam Busch, John Cho, Judy Greer, Noureen DeWulf, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Carmen Electra. Screenplay by Paul Weitz. Directed by Paul Weitz. Distributed by Universal Pictures.  107 minutes.  Rated PG-13. At this point in United States history, there are no targets riper for mo

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM (2005) Starring Peter Coyote, Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andy Fastow,  Bethany McLean, Peter Elkind, Jim Chanos, Max Eberts, Gray Davis and George W. Bush. Screenplay by Alex Gibney. Directed by Alex Gibney. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures.  110 minutes.  Rated R. The name of Enron Corporation has become shorthand for corporate malfeasance, however most people don’t know the specifics of the story. How is

Henry Rollins Henry Rollins Out of the Van by Ronald Sklar “I could grandstand and tell you I’m The Man, but I basically don’t have a life,” Henry Rollins tells me in a recent phone interview. As usual, The Man is being too hard on himself. The rock legend, now in his early forties and still as tough as a fifty-cent steak, has it for sure going on. He recently completed an 88-show spoken word tour, two USO tours — one to Iraq and Kuwait, the other to Honduras — and flexed his

Fahrenheit 9/11 FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004) Starring Michael Moore, George W. Bush, Cpl. Abdul Henderson, Lila Lipscomb, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Al Gore, Paul Wolfowitz and George H.W. Bush. Written by Michael Moore. Directed by Michael Moore. Distributed by Lions Gate Pictures.  116 minutes.  Rated R. All over the world, critics are going out of their way to review Fahrenheit 9/11 without really

The Fog of War THE FOG OF WAR (2004) Featuring Robert McNamara. Directed by Errol Morris. Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.  106 minutes.  Rated PG-13. Some people are born for greatness.  Some have it thrust upon them.  Some people just stumble into it.  Looking back over his life, Robert McNamara never seems to have planned or expected to play a major role in the life and death of millions of people.  He just happened to be the person at the right place at the right ti

Joshua Malina in “The West Wing.” Joshua Malina Hail to the Chief by Jay S. Jacobs There are lots of ways that people go about trying to get their first big break in acting.  Some people kill themselves working a minimum wage job while floating from audition to audition.  Some try other arts, like music or modeling, as an entrance. Some people sit on a stool in a Hollywood soda fountain and wait to get discovered.  Some eat something gross on national television. Joshua Malin