Now wait just one minute -- this is too much acting! Or should I say Acting? I guess I should.

This film adaptation of a play about a ragtag troupe of Shakespearean actors in WWII Britain begins way over the top and then just stays there. This is particularly true of Albert Finney, who portrays the aging, possibly dying, undoubtedly mind-losing lion at the center of the crew. Early on I found myself asking whether he was going to carry…

I don't think I'm quite diving into hot-take territory here, but my opinion of this early John Ford film, for which he won an Oscar for Best Director, is less favorable than most. Any list of movies about the Irish troubles may do well to include it, but among Ford's great many titles I would put this one near the bottom.

Victor McLaglen stars as a buffoon of sorts who informs on his best friend so he can claim a…

I didn't drink the Kool-Aid, and that made all the difference. I was aware of the hype surrounding this film -- oners! told in real time! -- but never really paid attention to it. The worst thing about film hype is that it leaves me going too far in the other direction ("Really? That's it?"). That's probably what happened to me with fellow Best Picture nominee "Parasite," for instance. But because I watched "1917" in a relatively hype-free environment, I…

We, as a society, cannot address our problems with race by hiding our problems with race. This movie is a specific example of that problem, and it should not be canceled by our indignant, easily outraged culture. I'm not here to defend the film. I fully respect anyone's desire to criticize the picture, ignore it, write it off the face of their own personal earth. But it should not be canceled.

The problem with "GWTW," as I see it, isn't…