Posted inArts & Entertainment, Review

‘The Tender Bar’ movie review: Liquor and life lessons, served neat

The title of George Clooney’s warm and fuzzy film adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s best-selling 2005 memoir involves a bit of clever wordplay. First, “The Tender Bar” is an affectionate allusion to the place where much of the film’s action takes place, if action is the right word for a story that’s mostly about words and […]

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Posted inArts & Entertainment, Review

‘A Journal for Jordan’ is a well-meaning but inert slice of true-life melodrama

Early in “A Journal for Jordan,” a mother reads her toddler a message, left by the boy’s late father: “Dear Jordan: I want you to know that it’s OK for boys to cry.” Opening with a life lesson like that virtually guarantees a three-hankie tear-jerker. But the film doesn’t quiet deliver on that promise. The […]

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‘The King’s Man’: Comic book meets history book

Matthew Vaughn’s ‘The King’s Man,” a prequel to the filmmaker’s two entertainingly comic-book-y action-adventure spy-larks “Kingsman: The Secret Service” and “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” is at once more bonkers and more staid than either of its predecessors (if a film that features a dancing, omnivorously bisexual, murderous Grigori Rasputin as one of its villains can […]

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‘Street Gang,’ a ‘Sesame Street’ documentary, is as sweet as the show – to its detriment

When a David morphs into a Goliath, it often becomes difficult to make out the former insurgent in the current icon. But HBO’s new documentary, “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street,” strives to do just that with the half-century-old television institution, recalling the noble objectives that gave the program life, as well as […]

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‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ is a big, fat Christmas present for fans

“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” for fanatic followers of the webslinger, is a big, fat Christmas present, covered in shiny, blue-and-red wrapping paper and all tied up with a pretty web bow. For more casual consumers of the costumed comic-book superhero’s exploits, mileage may vary. But there’s a whole lot to like here. There’s just a […]