Tommy Lee Jones’ latest film, the follow-up to his 2005 directorial debut, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, takes us as far away from the conventional western as I have seen from any modern director. The entire premise, movement heading from west to east, an unmarried female transporting crazy women back to Iowa—all of it […]
If Matthew McConaughey can turn a career around after not being taken seriously in his early work, surely Witherspoon can do the same with one Oscar already in her pocket. With a career built on pop culture, rom-coms and a rocky off-camera life, Witherspoon is one of the actors most people argue did not deserve
It should have been called “All the Same” or “All Related.” I was into this film in the first 20 minutes; it seemed like a script that was interested in pursuing a young man’s interest in an older mature woman over a younger blond bimbo. The juxtaposition had me intrigued. Connie Nielson (Gladiator) is looking
This might be the first time Alexander Payne didn’t write the screenplay for a film he directed, but the Oscar winner’s handprint is still everywhere. Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) has become one of the most respected auteurs in the business with his ability to portray the most realistic type of characters on the screen. Bittersweet
The Coen Brothers are excellent story tellers and inventors of characters, whether or not you like the film as a whole. Inside Llewyn Davis would fit into that good but not great category. The most impressive elements here are Oscar Isaac’s magnificent voice and “prickly” character performance and the unusually unique minor characters the Coen’s
This has been an incredible year for black history in film, and another beautiful film joins that welcome cluster. Director Just Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) is no stranger to historical pictures, and while his Mandela picture isn’t the sleekest and well rounded piece of cinema, it’s still a beautiful telling of an amazing story
What appeared to me like a light hearted “human interest” story, as the film refers, is actually full of heart and quite emotional when it gets down to it. Philomena is based on an extraordinary true story that is partly worth telling due to the type of circumstances one just can’t make up. Oscar winner
I had seen Andrea Riseborough in many good films, including Never Let Me Go, Happy Go Lucky, and even in Madonna’s film W.E.. Shadow Dancer is a small Irish film that makes the most of the small budget and large story. However, it never finds its footing as far as engrossing cinema goes. It’s from
To some extent a director is responsible for an actors good or bad performance, two years ago when both Christian Bale and Meslissa Leo won Oscars under David O. Russell’s direction for The Fighter it elevated him even further as an actor’s director. Disregarding Russell’s own craziness off camera, he has become a director, through
Director Roger Michell delivered a fantastic romantic comedy in the 90’s with Notting Hill; it was smart, enlightened and very European. Michell also directed the thriller Changing Lanes as well as 2010’s morning news romance Morning Glory. One of his most ambitious films is Hyde Park on Hudson because of the subject matter and the