Author – The Durango Herald

No sweet little old lady, the hero of ‘Harriet’ is a woman of action and moral courage

A movie starring Cynthia Erivo – and co-starring Leslie Odom, Jr. and Janelle Monáe – cries out to be a musical. But “Harriet,” in which Erivo plays American icon Harriet Tubman, dispenses w...

DATE: Oct 30, 2019 | CATEGORY: Arts and Entertainment

Joaquin Phoenix is a vivid, operatic Joker, but the movie is way too full of itself

From the hysterical levels of overpraise, concern-trolling and general hype that have greeted “Joker,” casual observers might assume that it’s either genius, right-wing propaganda or some di...

DATE: Oct 5, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

J-Lo makes commanding comeback in ‘Hustlers’

In a year of spectacular comebacks – from Brad Pitt and Renée Zellweger to Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy – none is as purely, sensationally pleasurable as Jennifer Lopez’s commanding lead perf...

DATE: Sep 14, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Review: Cate Blanchett is both otherworldly and lovable in ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’

Spiky, passionate, fierce and broken, the titular heroine of Maria Semple’s hilarious and touching novel “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” is one of the great characters in recent literary fictio...

DATE: Aug 17, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Review: This ode to Springsteen and the power of music may be the feel-good movie of the summer

Arriving like a fresh gust of wind off the Jersey Shore during a largely torpid summer, “Blinded by the Light” goes one better than the jukebox musicals that have played like barely warmed-o...

DATE: Aug 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Review: What if we didn’t meet the Beatles?

The whimsical what-if comedy “Yesterday” poses the intriguing question: Had the Beatles never existed, would the world be a worse place to live? Related: If you were a struggling ...

DATE: Jun 28, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

In ‘Late Night,’ Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling deliver sparkling wit and surprising sweetness

Forget national treasure: Emma Thompson could rent herself out as a national utility. In the alternately sharp-edged and generous-hearted comedy “Late Night,” she is so radiant, so utterly i...

DATE: Jun 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Taron Egerton shines in an oddly dark ‘Rocketman’

It’s almost unfair that “Rocketman,” a new movie about the rise, fall and rise of Elton John, is being released just months after the Freddie Mercury biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The echoes a...

DATE: Jun 2, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

It’s a long shot that rom-com ‘Long Shot’ will entertain you

“Long Shot,” a fantasy-fueled romantic comedy starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron, establishes its reality-adjacent ethos from the jump: In its tensely amusing opening scene, Rogen’s cha...

DATE: May 7, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

John Singleton helped redefine American pop culture, and his impact is still being felt today

Everyone remembers their first time seeing “Boyz n the Hood,” the electrifying 1991 writing and directing debut of John Singleton, who died Monday at the age of 51. It was easy to be jolted ...

DATE: Apr 30, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

Jordan Peele’s follow-up to ‘Get Out’ will give you nightmares – but in ‘Us,’ it’s the performances that you’ll remember

“Us,” Jordan Peele’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to his smash hit “Get Out,” can’t help but be compared to that earlier movie. As a politically minded genre exercise combining horror and h...

DATE: Mar 22, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming

‘Captain Marvel’ – Marvel’s first movie built around a woman – is not the empowering thrill it wants to be

There’s cosmic significance in “Captain Marvel” – the first female-led installment of the seemingly endless Marvel Studios Avengers franchise – opening on International Women’s Day. As a sto...

DATE: Mar 9, 2019 | CATEGORY: Film, TV and Streaming