Author Archives: Eleanor Ringel Cater

Based on the true story of Charlie Cullen, a nurse who may have killed anywhere from 29 to 400 (!) patients, “The Good Nurse” is a face-off between superb acting and sub-par storytelling.

“The Good House” isn’t a great movie but until its overly melodramatic final 10 or so minutes, it’s a pretty darn good one.

For those of us of a certain age, be we black or white or something in-between, the miracle of Sidney Poitier remains as indisputable as it is somewhat inexplicable.

My instinctive dislike of Lena Dunham’s self-created public persona has admittedly gotten in the way of my evaluation of her new feature, “Catherine Called Birdy.”

Her much-celebrated body has been cold for well over half a century. Yet Marilyn Monroe still enthralls.

For George Miller, the filmmaker who’s had a hand in such fantastical beasts as Babe, the sheepherding pig, and Imperator Furiosa (aka, Charlize Theron), the one-armed warrior, the tale of an academic and the djinn she accidentally releases while at a conference in Istanbul, is almost business as usual.

I still don’t know what a crawdad is or, for that matter, if it indeed sings. But that matters less to me than how surprisingly wispy “Where the Crawdads Sing” is.  Delia Owens’s debut novel was a phenomenon that, as of last winter, spent 150 weeks on the New York Time best seller list.

One hates to evoke Nancy Reagan while simultaneously sliming Jordan Peele, but here goes.mJust say no to “Nope.”

Never mind Austin (or Portland). Keep B.J. Novak weird. Or at least as weird as he is in “Vengeance,” a culture-clash comedy-thriller he wrote, directed and stars in.

In Baz Luhrmann’s movies, everything happens everywhere all at once. Think of “Moulin Rouge” or his take on “The Great Gatsby.”

“Every day’s my lucky day!” chirps Mrs. Harris, the nauseatingly cheerful ‘50s charwoman who is the protagonist of “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” a nauseatingly time-warped film about how the right fancy dress can change your life.

I was so looking forward to “Benediction,” a film about the British World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon. Then I saw it was written and directed by Terence Davies.

You don’t need to know Jack Nicklaus from Jack Nicholson to enjoy ”The Phantom of the Open,” a quirky British underdog comedy in the tradition of mid-century Ealing movies.  

Tom Robbins had the right idea. Even cowgirls get the blues in the understated yet oddly mesmerizing documentary – “Bitterbrush.”

“This is crazy,” says Evelyn (Michelle Yuen), a seemingly ordinary housewife beleaguered by laundry and taxes.

In the real world, J.K. Rowling is having her problems. Alas, in the Wizarding World she first created with her Harry Potter books, all is not exactly well either.