https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBiOF3y1W0Y DRIVE just about drove me crazy. I was so driven to distraction after seeing it-- I nearly drove off the road. This is one of the best films I've experienced all year, an existential action thriller--To Drive, is To Be-- and it should drive its leading man Ryan Gosling straight to the Oscars. The movie took [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSi3LdUrq18 I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT--but I sure wish the filmmakers had figured out how to make it look as hard as it is. Instead, the movie feels unimportant, and worse-- dated! The movie is based on the best-seller of the same name written by Allison Pearson, wife of NEW YORKER film critic [...]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sYSyuuLk5g CONTAGION begins with a mounting sense of dis-ease, which spreads like a virus through the all-star, "Oscar" infused cast as each one plays his or her part in what is about to become a pandemic! The tension mounts-- we see the whole globe engaged as the action proceeds smartly along on many levels. Director [...]
https://youtu.be/Yjg5t3__lLs THE DEBT opens with an intriguing bang, and closes with an fatiguing clang. But its two leading ladies had me at hello: Dame Helen Mirren queen of the movies, and Jessica Chastain the Meryl Streep of her generation-- with 3 big movies out this summer (THE TREE OF LIFE, THE HELP), and at least [...]
I loved the book. Couldn't wait to see the movie. The trailer gave me pause--nothing subtle here and that proved to be true. It's more pat and somehow smaller than Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel, but it's an engaging, if candy-coated take on the social milieu of a very American group of characters on the cusp [...]
