“Spiral: From the Book of Saw” is more frustrating than the average mediocre horror sequel because you can easily decipher the wasted opportunity up there on the screen. The story goes that Chris Rock had an original idea with which to reboot the “Saw” series, originally launched in 2004 by James Wan’s twisting thriller that…

A truly momentous achievement that will be analyzed and discussed for years to come, Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad” is much more than a history lesson. It avoids the traps of period dramas in unexpected ways, alternating lyrical passages of magical realism with brutal reminders of the wounds inflicted by the history of slavery. It…

After directing the meditative “Medicine for Melancholy,” the Best Picture winning “Moonlight,” and the sumptuous “If Beale Street Could Talk”—Barry Jenkins could have opted for less demanding material. Very few would have blamed him. In a climate weary of trauma, he instead chose the riskiest bet—a slave narrative. “The Underground Railroad,” adapted by Jenkins from…

A confluence of calamities has resulted in the arrival, now on Netflix, of “The Woman in the Window.” Among them were a massive media merger, reshoots after test-audience confusion and—of course—a global pandemic that paralyzed the movie industry for over a year. Ironically, those delays made the movie timelier. So the story of a woman…

With a new crime docuseries every week, I thought I had reached my tolerance level for the genre, but Epix’s “Fall River” reminded me of how well these kind of long-form investigative journalism pieces can be done. Director James Buddy Day doesn’t just offer a recounting of horrific events with excessive drone shots and talking…

Hannah Faber (Angelina Jolie) is a hard-drinking, hard-living one-of-the-boys smoke jumper, one of those daredevil firefighters who drops off helicopters into the middle of burning forests. The job attracts a certain kind of person, and Hannah, by the looks of her when we first meet her in “Those Who Wish Me Dead” is that kind of…