Patricia Henderson

The “new” movie City of Lies is based on a 2002 nonfiction book called (deep breath), LAbyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the Implication of Death Row Records’ Suge…

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you I am a Sam Cooke fan, and his inclusion as a character in One Night in Miami… is what initially drew my interest. Leslie Odom Jr.‘s…

When I noticed the name Clancy Brown in The Mortuary Collection‘s description, it was all the motivation I needed. He is one of my favorite character actors. In fact, he’s so good, he even makes…

In 2007, filmmaker Kirsten Johnson lost her mother, Catherine (nicknamed Katie Jo), to Alzheimer’s. Johnson was struck by how little footage she had shot of her mother, despite being a cinematographer for many years. That…

This article was heavily inspired by our own Kali Tuttle, and her masterpiece on the 20th anniversary of Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Kali live tweeted the movie as part of her process, and I thought that…

On the first day of October, 2017, tragedy struck in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the final night of Route 91 Harvest, an outdoor country music festival. An estimated 22,000 people were in attendance. At…

The charming, operetta-style film, Viktor und Viktoria was originally released in its native Germany in 1933. It had a wider release as Victor and Victoria, with English subtitles, two years later. The latter is the version…

The last time I was physically in a movie theater (for Impractical Jokers: The Movie), I saw The Lovebirds’ trailer. I thought it looked cute, and figured I’d see it once it came to streaming services.…

On April 30, 2010, a remake of the classic 1984 horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street was released. Many, including me, asked the burning question: “Why?” How could you tackle something so iconic, and why even…

Now that we’re all staying in our homes, TV viewing is increasing for many of us. While scrolling through the guide,  praying for something I like to be on, I was reminded of the fact…

Full disclosure: my family and I are fans of the television program, Impractical Jokers. In fact, on weekends, when my husband is home, it’s on for much of the day. It’s in heavy rotation on truTV,…

In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that what drew me to this movie was its title. One of my favorite albums of all time is by a band called Dead By…

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is one of those movies that was made, and sat around for a bit. It made the rounds on the festival circuit in 2018 and 2019, but…

Most of us have had this happen. You see an impressive trailer or hear people rave about how good a movie is. You have to see this movie! More often than not, when you finally do,…

For many people, Halloween means watching horror movies. Television networks air marathons of the standard franchises:  A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and my favorite, Halloween. While I do partake in some of this,…

I should warn you, this retrospective on the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam is going to make me sound like a prude. Despite the risk of said label, I maintain that this movie…

When I reviewed Welcome to Marwen in 2018, I lamented the fact that many movies “based on a true story” seem to add in a love story. Even if the real story did not contain one.…

My mother and I went on a cross-country Greyhound bus trip in the summer of 1989. At the time, they had a pass you could buy that gave you a lot of freedom. We made…

Netflix’s new romantic comedy offering, Always Be My Maybe, is a story written by its stars: real-life friends Randall Park, and Ali Wong. According to interviews the two have done in support of this film,…

Mix two directors, young attractive leads, some good performances, nice cinematography, and a made-for-TV vibe, and you get A Violent Separation. While this movie has some things going for it, there was clearly an untapped well…

Bedtime Story, a con artist film starring Marlon Brando, and David Niven, was released in 1964. A remake known as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels arrived in 1988 (with Michael Caine, and Steve Martin), which is arguably more popular…

By now, you may have caught on to the fact that most of my reviews are of streaming service, and “pay-per-view” fare. I so rarely get out to the theater/cinema in person, this is the…

Some people say movies like Napoleon Dynamite,  Juno, or pretty much anything by Wes Anderson, are quirky for the sake of being quirky. That they try too hard to be whimsical, and “different.” The people…

Legendary film critic Roger Ebert once said, “…movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” That movies make us care about people and situations we may never have known about otherwise. This quote often comes…

Every now and then, a film comes along whose title seems to make no sense whatsoever. It doesn’t fit the plot, the characters, and seems to have been pulled out of thin air. Then there…

Nothing makes someone of my generation feel more out of touch than being presented with a topic that “everyone was talking about.” And we’ve never heard of it. Such is the case with the Fyre…

It seems like Kevin Hart is the controversial figure of the moment. As we all know, ignorant old tweets (that have been apologized for ad nauseam) are the most important issue facing America today. Bar none.…

Though Steve Carell has made a concerted effort in recent years to pivot towards dramatic roles, 2018 has been the most drastic shift for him, with Beautiful Boy, Vice, and Welcome to Marwen all aiming for some sort…

Penny Marshall once said, “I want you to laugh and cry. That’s what I do.” And she did it well. Her movies reflected the joy, tragedy, and even the mundane moments of life. Marshall herself…

Rain Man was first released in December of 1988. To say people were more ignorant about autism back then would be a vast understatement. In fact, I doubt this film would be made today —…