Disney/Pixar’s colorful, entertaining animation will delight children and adults, which I inferred while watching the screening and hearing the applause at the end. Production design by Harley Jessup is rich in detail and captures Mexican lore about the land of the dead. The story by Lee Unkrich and his fellow writers has emotional depth that […]
Following up his smashing directorial debut with Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy again explores professional moral ambiguity. This time he’s got two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington (Fences) playing slightly against type. Wild hair, 90’s Sony Walkman and retro clothes make this look like a period piece, but that’s only Washington’s character. Like his previous film where Jake
What the trailer makes look like a comedy is surprisingly very sad. From writer/director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) comes another ambitiously vulgar, sarcastically brilliant script that audience’s familiar with his work will admire. His screenplays are always the highlight of the film, due to their provocative language, and I don’t just mean curse
In the same way Goodbye Christopher Robin explores the origins of Winnie the Pooh, The Man Who Invented Christmas takes us behind the mind and methods of Charles Dickens formulating his great masterpiece. Dan Stevens, most recently seen in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, doesn’t seem quite ready for leading man status. The 35-year-old British
A colleague of mine said, “if the film is too much ‘inside-baseball’, then it fails, and that’s on the filmmaker for not setting up his world clear enough.” For me that’s what happens here in The Square, the Cannes Palm d’Or winner and very likely foreign film nominee at the 90th Academy Awards. If we
It’s no secret that comedian Louis CK’s latest self-funded film has been terminated by it’s distributor. I Love You Daddy, was filmed in secret before debuting at TIFF, then screeners mailed to critics for award consideration before the sexual abuse scandal hit the airways. The subject matter of a 17-year-old girl being pursued by a
If you combined Still Alice and Ex Machina, you might be able to imagine what Marjorie Prime is going for. On the one hand, Michael Almereyda’s drama based on Jordan Harrison’s play (which also starred Smith), is a fascinating look into the future use of artificial intelligence as a coping mechanism. The drama takes time
The bestselling book about understanding your classmates, bullying and accepting others for what’s on the inside, comes to the big screen with big stars. R.J. Palacio’s book Wonder is a film that will be far more emotional and meaningful to parents than a younger audience. Restless, was what I witnessed at a screening of middle
Filmmaker Richard Linklater is a gem to the world of cinema. His creative forces always surprise both critics and audiences, regardless of whether you like his movies or not; you can always appreciate them. While the sheer originality of Boyhood will keep the Austin, Texas director busy trying to top that for years. His latest,
“Justice League” might be another clunky, dark, comic book adaptation from the DC Universe, but it’s seriousness is part of its appeal versus “Thor: Ragnarok”, which feels more like junk food. If Blanchett’s Hela was too much of a softy, Ciaran Hinds Steppenwolf (he looks even more ridiculous than the name) wields the power and