Israeli director Hany Abu-Assad might have missed more romance survivor films than he should, before undertaking The Mountain Between Us. There’s a lot of good work in the middle of this film, particularly thanks to Oscar winner Winslet (Steve Jobs, The Dressmaker) and Idris Elba (The Dark Tower, Beasts of No Nation). The remote isolation […]
In some of the early scenes of the film, we get a graphic picture of J. D. Salinger’s personality as a highly self-confident, even cocky, social climber in his flirtations with Oona O’neil (Eugene’s daughter, charmingly played by Zoey Deutch). He does capture her attention just by the way he introduces himself, and although she
In only his sophomore effort, writer/director Matt Ruskin jumps into the relevancy of the black lives matter movement with a true story that exposes the injustice of our justice system. Stanfield continues a stellar 2017, book-ending his box office hit Get Out with this powerful drama. Crown Heights won the Sundance audience award, propelling it
The Glass Castle doesn’t work well on screen under director Destin Daniel Cretton’s vision for a handful of reasons. The first and foremost is how the narrative manipulates the audience’s emotions and feelings towards the monstrous father figure. While Harrelson (Wilson) and Larson (Kong Skull Island) are astutely cast, the best parts of the film
Writer/director Gillian Robespierre re-teams with comedian Jenny Slate (Gifted) following their 2014 pregnancy film Obvious Child. Landline is a family dramedy that wallows in the era of 1995 so much that many scenes are devoted to nostalgic images over advancing the plot. Landline is also another film that promotes the worst aspect of New York
Texas filmmaker David Lowery’s latest film is an experiment. It’s an artistic endeavor, it’s risky, it requires everything from the viewer and only gives you something in return if you let it. A Ghost Story however doesn’t work as a cinematic feature, at least not in the traditional sense of a customer buying a ticket
Director Oliver Hirschbiegel (The Invasion, Downfall) once again tackles historical subject matter during WWII. This time he projects unsung war hero Georg Elser, who single-handedly tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler, to the big screen. 13 Minutes spends little time with the actual event, but introduces Elser to the world in dramatic fashion. Likely to be
Super pigs, rapid fire poo balls with both Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal playing cartoon like characters means this must be a Bong Joon-Ho film. The critically acclaimed South Korean director followed up action packed Snowpiercer with another thought provoking original concept. It’s hard not to like this film; it’s funny, cute, slightly twisted but
There are more great elements working for Beatriz at Dinner than against it, at the forefront, Selma Hayek. Mike White’s screenplay harks back to the first time he worked with director Miguel Arteta on The Good Girl (2002). That was a snappy, bold, but honest story about relationships. Beatriz at Dinner is the same vein
We are almost half way through 2017, and Churchill (one of two films portraying the iconic Brit) delivers the first potential leading actor awards contender. With a career spanning over four decades of supporting character roles, Brian Cox (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), the ever-villain, gets his big, bombastic leading performance and it’s