Josh Bell
Story Archive
-
Noise
Foo Fighters’ ‘Concrete and Gold’ conforms to the band’s classic-rock standards
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 In-demand pop producer Greg Kurstin gives the album some extra gloss, but it’s not like he has turned the Foos into a dance-pop act.
-
Screen
‘Law & Order’ takes on ‘The Menendez Murders’ in familiar procedural style
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 Already depicted in two 1994 network-TV movies, a recent Lifetime movie and numerous newsmagazines, the case has little new material to explore.
-
Noise
Vegas sibling hard rockers Otherwise return with a new album and a hometown show
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 “The year before we signed our deal, we were doing dual headlining shows with Imagine Dragons.”
-
Screen
Netflix’s ‘American Vandal’ smartly sends up the true-crime genre
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 Is it funny enough to sustain an eight-episode series? The answer, surprisingly, is mostly yes.
-
Screen
Film review: ‘American Assassin’ relies on outdated thrills
Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 The late Vince Flynn wrote 13 novels about superspy Mitch Rapp, building a dedicated fan following that helped bring Rapp to the big screen.
-
Screen
Reese Witherspoon shines in otherwise forgettable rom-com ‘Home Again'
Friday, Sept. 8, 2017 Twenty-five years ago, it might have ended up in ABC's TGIF lineup, alongside Step by Step and Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper.
-
A&E
Stephen King’s ‘It’ makes its mark on the big screen
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017 Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise is more explicitly violent, and the film takes full advantage of its R rating to stage intense set pieces, updating many of the horrors faced by the kids in the book.
-
Screen
HBO’s ‘The Deuce’ chronicles New York City’s early porn boom
Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017 It’s unlikely to overshadow The Wire, but it’s the most accessible and purely entertaining show David Simon has worked on since that iconic Baltimore crime drama.
-
Screen
Marvel TV series ‘Inhumans’ makes a disastrous debut in IMAX
Friday, Sept. 1, 2017 Even a bigger budget wouldn’t have fixed the stilted dialogue, one-dimensional characters and questionable acting.
-
Screen
A Hasidic man struggles with authority in ‘Menashe’
Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 It stars real-life members of the community, with dialogue almost entirely in Yiddish.
-
Screen
Break up with ensemble rom-com ‘I Do … Until I Don’t’
Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 The couples are all completely dysfunctional until they conveniently aren’t, for the sake of wrapping up the story.
-
Screen
‘Patti Cake$’ showcases an unlikely aspiring rapper
Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017 Patricia Dombrowski is a plus-sized white woman from suburban New Jersey who works nights as a bartender and dreams of hip-hop stardom
-
Screen
‘The Tick’ returns with disappointing new adventures
Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017 Amazon’s version takes a darker approach to the character’s adventures, while retaining some of the silliness of a hulking, exuberant man-child in a bright blue costume.
-
Screen
Film review: ‘Gook’ shows a different side of the LA riots
Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017 It’s surprisingly upbeat and funny for a movie about such a dark time.
-
Screen
Forgettable animated movie ‘Leap!’ limps into theaters
Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017 Though the film is easy enough to watch, it leaves essentially no impression once it’s over.
-
Screen
‘Ingrid Goes West’ explores social media’s dark side
Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017 The film scores some laughs by poking fun at the modern fixation on social media, but it isn’t just about taking easy potshots at entitled millennials.
-
Screen
Robert Pattinson plays a misguided lowlife in ‘Good Time’
Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017 The latest from filmmaker brothers Josh and Benny Safdie is as tense and deliberately abrasive as their previous narrative films
-
Screen
Steven Soderbergh returns with the uneven 'Logan Lucky'
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 The heist comedy, which recalls the Ocean’s trilogy, is the inversion of the slick, high-end robberies of those star-studded studio features.
-
A&E
Las Vegan Kashena Sampson makes her own way in country music’s capital
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 Rolling Stone recently named her one of “10 new country artists you need to know.”
-
Screen
Feel-good documentary ‘Step’ dances to a familiar, pleasant tune
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 The subject is the step-dance team at the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, an inner-city charter school dedicated to sending every one of its students to college.
-
Screen
‘Brigsby Bear’ finds genuine emotion in a weird premise
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 Held in a bunker, James has been socialized entirely by watching episodes of a surreal kid-oriented sci-fi show.
-
Screen
‘Wind River’ explores a murder mystery in a marginalized community
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017 While the case mostly proceeds along a straight line, writer/director Taylor Sheridan fills out the story with rich details of life on the reservation.
-
A&E
Lady Gaga effectively mixes spectacle and songcraft
Monday, Aug. 14, 2017 She remains a fantastic live act, distilling the best of her music, her fashion sense, her vocal skills and her charismatic personality into a two-hour stage spectacle.
-
Screen
German drama ‘13 Minutes’ explores a plot against Hitler
Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017 The bomb ended up killing eight bystanders but no high-ranking Nazi officials, as Hitler had left the building 13 minutes earlier.
-
Screen
The evil doll returns in’ Annabelle: Creation’
Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017 Much of the movie is just marking time until evil forces show up to wreak havoc.
-
Screen
Epix series ‘Get Shorty’ puts criminals in the movie business
Thursday, Aug. 10, 2017 The show has almost nothing in common with its source material, either Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1995 movie or the 1990 Elmore Leonard novel on which it was based.
-
Screen
‘The Dark Tower’ reduces a rich fantasy epic to a generic action movie
Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 Although Jake is a major character in King’s books, his more prominent role here makes the movie come off like an opportunistic C-level YA adaptation rather than the realization of Stephen King's unique vision.
-
Screen
Empty thriller ‘Kidnap’ barely qualifies as a feature film
Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 Halle Berry strains to carry the movie, not quite selling Karla’s anguish via the TV-movie-level dialogue.
-
Screen
‘Detroit’ unevenly dramatizes important history
Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017 The third collaboration between Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal is less focused and powerful than The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty.
-
Screen
A young wife comes undone in ‘Lady Macbeth’
Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017 Emboldened by her newfound passion, Katherine Lester openly flaunts her adultery, and then events take a darker turn.
-
Screen
Period comedy ‘Landline’ exudes warmth and likability
Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017 Recalling Woody Allen’s better movies of the 1990s, it stars Jenny Slate as a fledgling music journalist who hasn’t quite figured out how to be an adult.
-
Screen
Anthology series ‘Room 104’ offers a range of stories
Thursday, July 27, 2017 Brothers Mark and Jay Duplass are two of the most prolific creators right now, and they’re behind this new HBO series.
-
Screen
‘The Last Tycoon’ misses the appeal of classic Hollywood
Thursday, July 27, 2017 Set in 1936, the show takes place at the fictional Brady-American Pictures, where studio executive Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) is a moviemaking golden boy.
-
Screen
Charlize Theron kicks ass and looks cool in ‘Atomic Blonde’
Thursday, July 27, 2017 Every visual element contributes to defining the characters and moving the story forward.
-
Screen
The haunting ‘A Ghost Story’ explores love and loss beautifully
Thursday, July 27, 2017 A movie in which the main character spends nearly the entire time covered by a bed sheet does not sound like an emotionally devastating drama.
-
A&E
Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie deliver an uneven mix of new and old songs
Monday, July 24, 2017 “Red Sun,” a highlight of the Buckingham/McVie album, sounded nearly as satisfying as one of the Fleetwood Mac classics.
-
Screen
‘Maudie’ quietly explores the life of a beloved painter
Thursday, July 20, 2017 The movie stumbles within the framework of the great-artist biopic, but it can be affecting as a depiction of a troubled, sometimes tender romance.
-
A&E
‘Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets’ explores the outer reaches of sense
Thursday, July 20, 2017 Luc Besson has shown a great flair for exuberantly nonsensical science fiction in movies like The Fifth Element and Lucy, and this marks the culmination of that style.
-
Screen
Netflix crime drama ‘Ozark’ mostly takes itself too seriously
Thursday, July 20, 2017 Jason Bateman plays a Chicago financial planner with a wife and two kids who also happens to be a longtime money-launderer for a Mexican drug cartel.
-
Screen
‘Midnight, Texas’ makes the supernatural a bore
Thursday, July 20, 2017 In a small Southern town, various supernatural beings coexist in fragile harmony, while nefarious outsiders commit crimes that threaten to upset their quiet way of life.
-
Screen
Horror film ‘Wish Upon’ conjures up dumb clichés
Thursday, July 13, 2017 Protagonists should know better than to make wishes on mysterious ancient artifacts, but teenager Clare ignores the warning signs.
-
Screen
Vegas on home video: Four recent local features now available for streaming
Thursday, July 13, 2017 Including Lance Burton’s feature about a birthday-party magician who takes on the mob.
-
Noise
Haim’s second album revels in its retro cheese
Thursday, July 13, 2017 By unironically embracing the lush sounds of ’80s soft-rock and ’90s adult contemporary, the sisters have succeeded at making the uncool cool.
-
Screen
Obnoxious narcissists populate Netflix’s ‘Friends From College’
Thursday, July 13, 2017 They’re all so unpleasant and treat each other so poorly, it’s hard to imagine they’d want to spend even a few minutes together.
-
A&E
Five thoughts: Blondie and Garbage at the Pearl (July 8)
Monday, July 10, 2017 Although the heights of their popularity occurred about 20 years apart, the acts proved to be a surprisingly smart co-headlining pair.
-
A&E
'Homecoming' successfully brings Spider-Man fully into Marvel’s movie universe
Thursday, July 6, 2017 Tom Holland is great at conveying Peter’s wide-eyed wonder at having superpowers and getting to make a difference, and Michael Keaton makes for one of Marvel’s best onscreen villains.
-
Screen
‘Will’ tries to turn Shakespeare into a sexy antihero
Thursday, July 6, 2017 TNT’s portrayal mixes of lighthearted backstage antics and dreary political intrigue, neither of which is particularly successful.
-
Screen
‘The Big Sick’ explores a charming and realistic romance
Thursday, July 6, 2017 The movie succeeds in the personal specificity of the story, written by comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon, based on their real-life romance.
-
Screen
‘Despicable Me 3’ throws together a rote sequel
Thursday, June 29, 2017 The cast has gotten so cluttered that Gru’s onetime assistant Dr. Nefario is literally frozen for the entire movie, just to get him out of the way.
-
A&E
The Amazing Las Vegas Comic Con demonstrates the strength of the local geek community
Thursday, June 29, 2017 Organizers estimated attendance for this year’s edition at more than 33,000, the largest number yet.