octavia spencer | etc-etera

Review: Ma

Ma, as its title may suggest, is not about a maternal figure. She may seem that way since she's played by Octavia Spencer, who is a...

Instant Family, inspired by the personal experiences of writer-director Sean Anders and his wife, often plays like an extended PSA for...

As with Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone before it, Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is a decidedly adult fairy tale that...

A return to small-scale filmmaking for director Marc Webb after helming 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel, Gifted is a...

As its title suggests, Hidden Figures shines a spotlight on those who deserve to be known and remembered rather than remain historical...

Billy Bob Thornton returns as Willie T. Stokes, the boozing, cussing, thieving, sexed-up, and politically incorrect anti-hero in a Santa...

Fathers and Daughters is a standard but undeniably affecting melodrama that follows two stories. The first is that of award-winning...

The latest, and mercifully penultimate, installment of The Divergent series, Allegiant won't certainly entice viewers who are unfamiliar...

Black or White is a family drama about race relations that somehow elides the thornier aspects of its subject matter. Well-intentioned...

Insurgent, the second installment of The Divergent Series, is a mostly sputtering mess before it coalesces into a propulsive third act....