Author – The Durango Herald

‘Before I Fall’: Life lessons delivered over a single day, relived over and over

Let’s get this out of the way: If “Before I Fall” were an elevator pitch, it would be a cross between “Groundhog Day” and “If I Stay.” It also shares strands of DNA with such teen-angst clas...

DATE: Mar 5, 2017 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

‘La La Land’: Homage to the musical

“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle’s exuberant, thoughtful ode to bygone movie musicals, begins with two bravura gestures. After a retro-looking CinemaScope logo announcing the film’s big-screen ...

DATE: Feb 4, 2017 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Have you seen the best movies of 2016?

Every year, my fellow movie reviewers and I bemoan the current state of cinema – Too many comic-book flicks! Not enough substance! Where are the musicals/love stories/chick flicks of yore? W...

DATE: Dec 29, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Sci-fi drama ‘Passengers’ is narratively over-plotted and ethically underbaked

In “Passengers,” Chris Pratt plays a man who, while in suspended animation during a 120-year commercial space mission to a faraway colony planet, is mistakenly awakened mid-trip. Adrift and ...

DATE: Dec 20, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

‘13th’ explores racism and criminal justice

Documentary will begin streaming today on Netflix

DATE: Oct 6, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Fall is the season for Important Movies

At the Toronto International Film Festival last month, one word was heard more often than any other when writers, directors and actors appeared to publicize the movies they were in: Importan...

DATE: Oct 6, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Spielberg adapts Roald Dahl’s ‘The BFG’ with uneven, but finally winning, results

“The BFG,” Roald Dahl’s beloved adventure tale about a brave little girl who befriends the titular Big Friendly Giant, finds Steven Spielberg in his natural element of childlike enchantment,...

DATE: Jun 29, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Does 'Money Monster' want to be 'Network' or 'Speed'? Yes

George Clooney mugs, dances and pretty much looks like he’s having the time of his life in “Money Monster,” in which he plays a financial cable show host with the aggression of Jim Cramer an...

DATE: May 12, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

‘Captain America: Civil War’ proves – yet again – Marvel’s chops on the big screen

It’s almost not fair that “Captain America: Civil War” is opening barely a month after “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The movies share so much, from their escapist origins to their m...

DATE: May 5, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

'How to Be Single' is raunchy, rote and not terribly romantic

Dakota Johnson makes for an oddly recessive heroine in “How to Be Single,” an earnest but awkwardly misshapen attempt to reconcile the archaic conventions of romantic comedy with the 21st-ce...

DATE: Feb 11, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

1950s-set 'Brooklyn' is a rich, deeply moving melodrama

Soaring, swooning and gently nostalgic, “Brooklyn” takes melodrama to a new level of reassuring simplicity and emotional transparency. The exquisite adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s no...

DATE: Jan 7, 2016 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Review: Suffragette

With its sepia tones and stirring themes, “Suffragette” arrives in theaters with the full weight of history and topical resonance behind it. The story of British activists who fou...

DATE: Nov 25, 2015 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming