Fox Searchlight Pictures
Picture a film with the seriousness of Merchant-Ivory displayed with Stanley Kubrick’s reality-warping cinematography and spiked with a streak of the kind of dark comedy which made you bark shocked laughter when you saw what happened to Brad Pitt’s character in the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading. Hell of a concept (and a run-on sentence), […]
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Let’s face it: I like films about broken people. People with a chip on their shoulder, some kind of physical/emotional/mental handicap, or an attribute holding them back from being normal. Normal, to me, is the stuff of which Nancy Meyers films and the like are made. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy them from […]
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Ever been at a wedding and wondered how, exactly, the seemingly random folks stuck at a table in the corner – who aren’t talking to anyone else, let alone each other – know the bride and groom? Having been a guest or a hired performer at many weddings, watching Table 19 was like watching an […]
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Biopics have always been hit or miss for me. Sometimes, I feel like there’s a certain kind of voyeurism and scandal-seeking inherent in films like these, and it’s hard for me to want to be party to it. Pablo Larraín’s Jackie reads like a look behind Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis’ carefully curated and polished veneer upon which […]
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I could probably wrap up my feelings about “Demolition” in a couple of sentences, but I’m obligated to write at least 400 words, so enjoy the diatribe. The film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée of “Dallas Buyer’s Club” and “Wild”, is one of the more aggravating experiences I’ve had at the theater this year. I mostly […]
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One of the most beautiful and intriguing films of the year comes from Italian writer/director Paolo Sorrentino in his second English language feature “Youth”, which aside from showcasing the talents of Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and (briefly) Jane Fonda, features exquisite cinematography from Sorrentino’s go-to Luca Bigazzi. Visually, the film recalls Ruben Östlund’s “Force Majeure” and even Wes Anderson’s […]
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Director Jean-Marc Vallée’s last film, “Dallas Buyers Club”, was about a man trying to better himself in the wake of some life-changing news. The film was a compelling true story; humorous, charming and most of all, meaningful on a level other than the main character’s well-being, it seamlessly marbled a morally driven narrative with haunting glimpses into […]
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If bit parts in this year’s “Robocop” and “Need for Speed” seemed to indicate that Michael Keaton’s incredible versatility had faded for good, then Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” surely proves the opposite. Keaton plays once A-list movie star Riggan Thomson, best known for a series of blockbuster superhero films in the late […]
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Brendan Gleeson plays the quietly forlorn but devoted Father James Lavelle, a Catholic priest who is threatened with death by a mysterious guest in his confessional booth. It’s a shocker of an opening line, as the unseen parishioner graphically details his molestation from a priest at an early age, but James doesn’t necessarily appear to be shocked. […]
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Let’s get right to it: The Way, Way Back is my favorite movie of 2013 so far. Writers/directors Nat Faxon and Jim Rash have created a movie that’s completely antithetical to the big-budget, computer-generated summer blockbuster, and it manages to have a million times more soul and heart than most films out there currently. It’s […]
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