Apparently it’s WWII month for the stay-at-home films. While last week’s “The Courier” showcased a well-cast but bland approach to familiar tropes, “Six Minutes to Midnight” is exactly the opposite. Eddie Izzard is a witty comedian, colorful voice actor and often a decent eccentric antagonist in films like “Victoria & Abdul” (where she originally co-starred […]
Although this is an interesting story, The Last Vermeer is uneven in its presentation and inserts events in the script that seem to be intended simply to make the film more exciting to the current generation. John Orloff (pen name, James McGee) wrote the script about a character named Han van Meergren who sold forged Vermeer paintings to
The first great film of 2020 creeps up on you gradually in the most unexpected way. “Summerland” is the feature film debut of Jessica Swale, who also wrote the original screenplay. She takes us back to the WWII era, just when you think every possible angle has already been captured on film, “Summerland” finds uncharted
While a new film about Marcel Marceau, “The most important mime who ever lived”, and his contributions to saving Jewish children during WWII, probably isn’t the movie quarantines audiences needs right, it’s what we have. Smaller releases like “Resistance” (from IFC Films) are getting more attention due to major studios pulling all their theatrical releases
Filmmaker François Girard (The Red Violin) is interested in music first, film second, and history third. His latest The Song of Names, like all his work, combine those three elements, this time into a familiar WWII film. The Song of Names also functions somewhat as a coming of age story, or at least it’s flashbacks.
Shot back in 2016, Terrence Malick’s latest film is also his longest. Based on a true story, “A Hidden Life” is his first linear narrative since “The New World.” With so many flashbacks and “visions,” it certainly does not follow a traditional linear path. Taking over for Malick’s frequent collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki, Jörg Widmer’s opening
The fact that filmmaker Roland Emmerich (“White House Down,” “10,000 BC”) having to get funds outside the U.S. to finance his $100+ million epic of American history should have been a clue that more work was needed with this project. Emmerich has assembled a B-list cast of characters and attempts to give each at least
There are so many ways this spy drama could have gone, but the television turned movie director Trevor Nunn seems at odds with how to navigate through the backstory. “Red Joan” uses the same framework as “The Wife,” going back and forth between the present and the past. Oscar-winner Dame Judi Dench (her performance is
The real aftermath here is the bad aftertaste James Kent’s new adaptation leaves with the viewer. He delivers an ending that I found personally offensive, highly debatable, and utterly misogynistic. The Aftermath, based on the novel by Rhidian Brook, seems to suggest that both of the film’s male decision makers have a narrow view of women’s
There was a huge wave of buzz after Darkest Hour debuted at Telluride. Not only just for the obvious best actor race, but even some mention of best picture. Mainstream American audiences will likely write this film off a stuffy historical drama where history plays out in a bunch of different rooms. It’s true that