It’s been 16 years since Christine Jeffs’ last feature, the seriocomic Amerindie sleeper “Sunshine Cleaning,” with Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Her new feature “A Mistake” hews back to her 2001 debut, “Rain,” in that it is set in her native New Zealand and adapts its script from a Kiwi author (in this case Carl […]

Many movies have dealt with the agonized grief that follows a child’s death. More than a few, notably “Pet Sematary” and its ilk, have dealt with the … er, awkwardness when said child unnaturally comes back to life, or at least un-death. Smoothly crafted but uninspired “Here After” tries to have it both ways, playing […]

There is a quease factor to the popular fascination with serial killers that goes well beyond morbid curiosity about the crimes themselves — specifically, those who can’t get enough of such subject matter. How many dramatic depictions do we need of, say, Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy? Surely no new insights can truly be gleaned. […]

Most people probably can’t remember “global warming” or whatever you want to call it being a significant issue — let alone a political football — before the last decade or two. But as “The White House Effect” underlines, about 35 years ago it was both prominent in the public eye and not yet politically divisive. There […]

Though it was hardly the first thriller to portray domesticity imperiled by an artificially intelligent “helper” (you may recall trapped Julie Christie in 1977’s “Demon Seed,” for starters), the runaway success of 2022’s “M3GAN” certainly lent that concept new commercial appeal. Unsurprisingly, Blumhouse isn’t waiting for next summer’s “M3GAN 2.0” to capitalize on its own […]