The Coen brothers as filmmakers are hit and miss with me. For every one of their on-target skewers of life as we know it they produce something that I just don’t get, like Burn After Reading or O Brother, Where Art […]
Continue reading »Category: Recent Releases
Labor Day (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Meryl Streep is the most honored performer in Academy Awards history, with a total of eighteen acting nominations — including a current one for August: Osage County, in which she once again proves her incredible range and talent. Over the […]
Continue reading »12 Years a Slave (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
I have to admit that I have not been looking forward to seeing this, for the subject matter inevitably leads to viewer depression and guilt. Misplaced guilt, perhaps, but guilt nonetheless. My trepidation was absolutely realized; 12 Years a Slave is […]
Continue reading »The Monuments Men (2014) ☆ ☆
Cinema can serve as a wonderful introduction to real-life stories, especially those which have, for many reasons, remained largely hidden from public view. I have always held a special appreciation for movies like Argo (2012), or The Raid (1954) or The Man […]
Continue reading »Lone Survivor (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Modern warfare is the milieu of Lone Survivor, a movie about a team of Navy Seals on a special mission in Afghanistan that goes horribly wrong. It’s based on a real mission (which actually lasted longer in real life, believe […]
Continue reading »The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Director Martin Scorsese has the knack of filling his better films with an intense energy, and I cannot think of a story better suited to Scorsese’s urgency than this tale of a fearless financier taking advantage of everyone around him. […]
Continue reading »Nebraska (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Alexander Payne is becoming mid-America’s version of Woody Allen, making small-scale, personal movies in unique, interesting ways. His feature films Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011) feature quirky characters in realistic situations taken to absurd limits, enacted by wonderful […]
Continue reading »August: Osage County (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Adapting plays for the big screen is a tricky business, especially when a playwright takes on the task him or her self. Sometimes they come across as artificial or very cramped or stagy in some respect. When done right, however, […]
Continue reading »American Hustle (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
Some movies are essentially indescribable, at least in terms of genre, type or even effect. Such is the case with American Hustle, David O. Russell’s new exploration of the 1970s. On the surface it is a very loose interpretation of […]
Continue reading »Saving Mr. Banks (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
Who knew there was so much turmoil behind the story of Mary Poppins? In 1964 the public was presented with a jolly holiday of a movie replete with joyful music, peppy characters and a serious but sweet undertone. It won […]
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