Offering a sweeping view of one of literature's most celebrated authors, this film presents J.R.R. Tolkien as a young man who grew up in harsh circumstances only to find an outlet through his creative imagination, an alliance of a brotherhood, and a woman who became the love of his life.

June is a precocious and bright child who delves into creating an imaginative amusement park with her mother. When her mother becomes ill June puts aside all her interests and tries to cope with the sadness in her life. An unexpected adventure helps her see that imagination is a help to overcoming any darkness.

The new "Mary Poppins Returns" is a soaring success, a rousing romp and a tremendous triumph! If I thought I wouldn't get trounced, I might even say I like it as well or better than the original (I feel the urge to duck right now).

In the fantastical virtual world of the OASIS, Wade and his friends escape the depressed, dystopian world they live in only to find they are oppressed there as well by the IOI who want complete control.

This film is based on the 2017 best-selling young adult novel of the same title by Angie Thomas. The title is from rapper Tupac Shakur's "Thug Life": If you teach hate, and treat people in hateful ways, this will affect children in ways that do harm to everyone.

In this humorous Cinderella-like story, Chinese-American Rachael Chu discovers something deep about herself even as she follows her dream of falling in love. The importance of family and being true to yourself are this film's hallmarks.

The new coming-of-age film, "Lady Bird," is one of the funniest films of the year and possibly one of the best-edited films I've ever seen. The eponymous main character is a more-precocious-than-rebellious teen (Saoirse Ronan)  who places a high premium on originality (real name: Christine). Lady Bird lives in boring Sacramento ("the Midwest of California") and dreams of breaking away, but her options are limited due to her family's constrained finances. Her moth...

"Novitiate," written and directed by Margaret Betts, gives a glimpse into one young woman's struggles with faith, sexuality, and change. A one-sided look at religious life just prior to and during Vatican II.

The movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been getting darker of late but with "Spider-Man: Homecoming" we get a true comic-book movie with lots of action, light-hearted fun, and character growth.

When I heard about the new movie, "Everything, Everything," it was advertised as “from the studio that brought you "Me Before You."” As that was a pro-euthanasia film, I was hoping "Everything, Everything" wasn’t more of the same, reinforcing the culture of death, as St. John Paul II put it. Thankfully, it is not.