THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL is definitely second best--as most sequels are, but this cast and locale still manage to make the film a delightful, if passing, fancy. Richard Gere in the mix (yes, the hunk is getting on) adds an extra bit of spice. The old gang has returned, an elderly but colorful band of wandering misfits who have taken up [...]
SELMA puts you there--right in the middle of the racism at the heart of these United States. Many of us lived it in the sixties, in the deep south with its segregated restaurants, hotels, and water fountains, and later, on television where the rest of us watched the local vitriol boil over and onto the world stage as the great [...]
The film hits you like a slap in the face. WHIPLASH is not just the name of Hank Levy's eccentrically metered jazz tune, but it describes the dangerous dynamic between a young drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) and his bullying instructor Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) at an exclusive music conservatory. Andrew takes a licking and keeps on ticking in one of [...]
INTERSTELLAR is "INTER-less than-STELLAR," but at least it reaches for the stars. Just opened in IMAX and theaters everywhere, INTERSTELLAR, Christopher Nolan's gorgeously shot and directed 3-hour extravaganza, is an immersive experience, part sci-fi adventure/thriller, part family saga; but the meshing of those elements by way of a screenplay co-written by the brothers Nolan-- Jonathan and Chris-- -is [...]
Bill Murray is the screen's funniest, most endearing curmudgeon. Here in ST. VINCENT as the title character, he's all pockmarked and rumply, biting the head off every cheerful do-gooder who has the nerve to make conversation. But that title is part of the problem, pretty much giving away the ending and any hope for subtlety. I had been lead to believe otherwise by the first two thirds [...]
Feel 30 years younger when you see BEGIN AGAIN-- a beguiling romantic comedy that will remind you of what it was like to be in love, have your heart broken, and follow your dream, starring PEOPLE MAGAZINE's sexiest man alive--Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, and the gorgeous Keira Knightley! Here's the story-- Keira Knightley plays [...]
Two quick reviews before the weekend! NOAH is a crazy film by Darren Aronofsky (THE FOUNTAIN, BLACK SWAN) manifesting the filmmaker's trademark tussle with the unknowable and a feverish attempt to reconcile good and evil, faith and fear, while yoking the otherworldly to concrete reality. Russell Crowe as Noah gets the message to build an [...]
Leave it to a pair of magicians to take the magic out of a great work of art, then raise even deeper questions than they answer. TIM'S VERMEER floored me. It really messed with my head. Dutch master painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675), known for his extraordinary sense of composition, pristine technique, and light--his canvases seem [...]
Look. I love the arts. And this is a FANTASTIC a story about rescuing artistic masterpieces from Nazis and returning them to their owners-- I mean, what could be better than that?!! Well, having seen THE MONUMENTS MEN-- just about anything. This is one of those hidden chapters of World War II that begs to [...]
I thought my eyes would pop out of my head! The WOLF OF WALL STREET left me howling, jaw on the floor, more than once. This fantastically over the top, true story of 8o's-style greed from Martin Scorsese, plays like CALIGULA on Wall Street, laced with "coke, testosterone, and bodily fluids." Leonardo DiCaprio grabs and [...]
