Culture
More underlies ‘The Upside,’ than just two guys having fun
Kevin Hart and Bryan Cranston have great on-screen charisma and generate lots of laughs, but the film reinforces old stereotypes of race and class that still have the power to hurt deeply.
‘The Favourite’: Women behaving badly, but in great costumes
The comedy-drama about a royal love triangle in 18th-century England shocks and offends at every turn, doing a disservice to lavish production values and three actresses at the top of their game.
Rough language might prompt early exit from ‘Escape Room’
Besides violating the Second Commandment, the mayhem is nongraphic in this film about a seemingly unrelated group seeking a reward for escaping a room but struggling for survival instead.
‘Vice’ does a gleeful, nuance-free hatchet job on Dick Cheney
In this take on the Bush-Cheney administration, the generally fine cast, particularly Amy Adams, does what it can with the film's stick figure characters in a prevailing atmosphere of inky-black cynicism.
Historian provides riveting account of WWII chaplains from Notre Dame
Expert storytelling and rigorous research reveal the little-studied perspective of some three dozen priests who brought Christ to the battlefields.
Book shows human faces of IS victims, atrocities of Islamic caliphate
Two researchers on genocide describe the horrors endured by the Yazidi, a non-Muslim minority targeted by extremists, whose practice of Islam is based on "sex, money and power."
‘Holmes & Watson’ is all too elementary
Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly spoof Victorian manners in this take on the legendary detective and his sidekick, where crude humor trumps reason.
Religion historian appreciated Colorado Cistercians after tragedy struck
Elaine Pagels, a religion historian for whom the personal became professional and vice versa over the past 60 years, said she appreciated the Cistercian monks at Snowmass, Colorado, when tragedy struck her twice in a year's time.
No spoonful of sugar needed as ‘Mary Poppins Returns’
Families will enjoy the title character's return to Depression-era London (with some notable cameos) as she helps solve a family crisis with whimsy and song -- in the most delightful way.
WWI’s flower of youth comes alive in ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’
Director Peter Jackson, best known for helming "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, restores archival footage of soldiers of the First World War, recapturing the humanity and suffering of the mostly teen soldiers.