AMERICAN MADE Review — A Real Life Caper With Edge
American Made Review — Tom Cruise and Doug Liman are red, white and bruised by Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson Nobody’s as American made as Tom Cruise – from his portrayal as the apple-pie enterprising teen in Risky Business to his Oscar-winning turn as real-life hero Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July (and many…
BATTLE OF THE SEXES Review — We've Come a Long Way, Baby
Battle of the Sexes Review — Serving Up Controversy by Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson While there may have been no love lost between tennis stars Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in the early 1970s, the pugnacious pair were everywhere the public looked. The feminist was sponsored by Virginia Slims (“You’ve come a long way, baby,”…
MOTHER! Review — Unapologetic, Unleashed and Unrestrained
Mother! Review — A creator’s nightmare vision by Staci Layne Wilson @staciwilson They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s Mother! certainly is inventive when compared to the plethora of action, superhero and emoji movies out these days. Metaphors abound in Mother!. Creation, gestation, life, work, inspiration, joy, decline, death – it’s all…
AMERICAN ASSASSIN Review: Jason Bourne Light
AMERICAN ASSASSIN Review by Lisa Johnson Mandell Move over Matt Damon and Charlize Theron. There’s a new CIA black op in town, and he’s younger, tougher and almost as pretty as you are. If American Assassin, based on the popular Vince Flynn novel of the same name, doesn’t quite have the gravitas or brutal artistry…
MANOLO: THE BOY WHO MADE SHOES FOR LIZARDS Review
MANOLO Blahnik Documentary Review By Staci Layne Wilson There’s just something about a pair of sexy stilettos on woman’s stems. The panache is indefinable, in spite of many psychological and social experiments proving it’s true: high heels are just freaking hot. There are no hotter high heels than a pair of Manolos. Iconic looks, a…
FATE OF THE FURIOUS Review — A Wild Ride Definitely Worth a Spin
FATE OF THE FURIOUS Review by Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson The Fast and the Furious film franchise started way back in the early 2000s, modestly with just a few muscle cars and a handful of up-and-coming actors. Nowadays it’s big box office biz thanks to its stupendous stunts with ever-increasingly exotic vehicles and megawatt action stars…
ALLIED Review — A Sleek, Sexy, Stylish, Soon-to-Be-Classic
ALLIED Review — By Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson Brad Pitt has a lot of cinematic experience fighting in WW2 — following Inglourious Basterds and Fury, he’s back in uniform for more of the blitzkrieg with Marion Cotillard at his side as the spy who loves him. Pitt plays Max Vatan, a brooding Canadian intelligence officer, and…
DOCTOR STRANGE Review — The Most Marvel-ous of All
DOCTOR STRANGE Review: Worth springing extra for IMAX 3D, but spectacular in any format By Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson After super-skilled neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has his precious hands pulverized in an accident, he’s understandably distraught and desperate to find a way to salvage his career. So he hightails it to Kathmandu in…
ELLE Review — I'm With Her…Almost
Staci Layne Wilson’s Elle review says the film is at once a sadistic stalker thriller, a revenge tale, a study of corporate espionage, a comedy of manners, and a family drama. By Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson Director Paul Verhoeven had his heyday back in the awesome ’80’s with tawdry suspensers like Basic Instinct, sexy dark…
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN Review — A Slow, Disappointing Ride
The Girl on the Train Review – By Staci Layne Wilson @StaciWilson The Girl on the Train is based on a bestselling novel by Paula Hawkins, which is in turn a response to the wildly popular domestic violence murder mystery genre of page-turners. Gone Girl is the queen of them all, but books like You,…
