ALL IS LOST--Robert Redford's latest as a man alone and adrift at sea-- plays like an extended Viagra commercial. You know-- older, handsome outdoorsman testing his mettle against the elements; there's a broken mast involved. I know, I know. It's Redford--and there's already Oscar buzz about this performance and this movie. Well, I know what [...]
12 YEARS A SLAVE is as unsparing as its title. The film is a shattering experience-- for actors and audience--as we are dragged into the abyss of slavery through the documented real life experience of a free black man in upstate NY who was kidnapped from his family in the middle of his life, and [...]
What is it about Sandra Bullock and one-word titles that place her at the mercy of out of control modes of transport? In GRAVITY the vehicle is a space "bus" of sorts, thousands of light years away from the earthbound thrills of the movie that put her on the map--SPEED. Written and directed by Alfonso [...]
HURRY!! YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO A FREE SCREENING of Dreamworks Animation’s upcoming Deluxe Edition Blue-ray and DVD release: “SHREK THE MUSICAL” THE FIRST 25 PEOPLE TO RESPOND (via “Contact Joyce” on home page) WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL BE EMAILED A PASS FOR FOUR! Saturday, October 12, 2013 at 10:00 AM [...]
I cannot say enough about ENOUGH SAID-- one of the best films at the movies right now! It's an authentic, charming, tenderly-acted but unsentimental tale about grown-ups falling in love. Yes-- grown-ups, a pair of middle-aged divorcees played by the late James Gandolfini (to whom the film is dedicated) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Albert and Eva meet [...]
PRISONERS is one of the best films I've seen at the movies in weeks. It pops like a kernel in a myriad ways--full of nooks and crannies, threatening & thrilling, sad & shocking, and just plain entertaining. I followed this thriller about two little girls who disappear on Thanksgiving Day-- right down a very dark [...]
HURRY!! FREE SCREENING of a NCM Fathom Events and Clean Guys™ release: “THE CLEAN GUYS™ OF COMEDY” THE FIRST 5 PEOPLE TO RESPOND (via “Contact Joyce” on home page) WITH THEIR FULL NAMES AND EMAIL ADDRESSES WILL HAVE A PAIR OF TICKETS HELD IN THEIR NAMES AT THE BOX OFFICE ON THE NIGHT OF SEPTEMBER [...]
I have just seen the first OSCAR WORTHY performance by an actress this year-- or any year: Cate Blanchett in BLUE JASMINE--Woody's latest and absolutely one of his best films, ever. It's become a cliche that writer/director Woody Allen's work had hit the doldrums critically for a bit, and lately, everything he's doing has been [...]
Steve Jobs would have HATED this movie. Where Jobs the man was a revolutionary thinker outside the box, JOBS the movie is a swamp of cliches. Where Jobs the man was a detailed and exacting mass of conundrums, JOBS the film is a hodgepodge of carelessly assembled factoids, loose ends, facile conclusions, and haphazard montages. [...]
I've yet to see THE WOLVERINE and believe I am the LONE CRITIC who loved THE LONE RANGER. Here's the best & worst of the rest so far: 20 FEET FROM STARDOM--This revealing, heartbreaking documentary charts the careers, hopes, dreams, disappointments of the back-up singers who literally stand inches away from center stage-the voices behind [...]
