This is a side note having little to do with this actual movie’s specific merits. After all the small-fry good work this year and big studio misfires, this film feels like a relic of another era, in a good way. Having a big December period movie with powerhouses Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts […]
Starting Out In The Evening is impeccably made and delicately acted. Frank Langella plays a venerated but obscure literary author, working on what he’s sure is his final book. Lauren Ambrose barges needfully into his peaceful scholarly life, a starstruck grad student who is deeply affected by Langella’s works. She wants to […]
This was a difficult review to write; even with my brilliant companion’s astute analysis, I am not sure I can distill the dollar value of The Savages for you, my Constant Readers, in a way that will sound properly reverent of its merits or critical of its flaws. In The Savages, Laura Linney and […]
After viewing this film, my companions and I entered into a lively discussion centered around how we felt about the protagonist. We all had strong views about him as a person, and not a lot of overlapping agreement. I report this because I did not realize at the time that we all had […]
I confess that I found it far-fetched that a film starring Keira Knightley would be on anyone’s Top Ten lists, or even get nominated for something. From a purely technical standpoint, Atonement is astonishing - all kinds of gorgeous and subtle tricks of light and camera movement give emotional thrust to our leads’ experiences. […]
Some movies feel like they are going to be so quirky and precious that you instinctively brace yourself before seeing them, ready for some kind of regurgitated and safe formula to ruin what could have been a good idea. Juno is NOT that kind of movie. Ellen Page plays Juno, a high schooler […]
Occasionally I am contacted directly by distributors or filmmakers of tiny films to see if I will review (and thereby publicize) their movie. I try to only say yes to those I know will really watch, and I also try to be as objective as I can; most times I am not worried if […]
Spanning 16 years, Talk To Me purports to be the tale of Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene’s rise from obscurity, I say purports, because the always excellent Don Cheadle is vying for Best Actor, and his equally excellent costar Chiwetel Ejiofor is only billed as Supporting Actor, and I think the story is about the two […]
Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen have put their unique stamp on film styles diverse in tone and in subject matter. Here, they adapt another man’s work, Cormac McCarthy’s novel, but still make it their own. No Country recollects Fargo in having huge, nearly alien American vistas populated by odd, clever, and violent people. […]
Denzel Washington is the African-American actor who all America loves, even those people who are vaguely uncomfortable with non-whites in movies. His broad grin, sparkling charm and intelligence, and prodigious acting skills, have won the hearts of America’s filmgoers above any considerations of race. I bring this up because it has got to […]
