By now, David O. Russell has openly and repeatedly acknowledged that his 2010 film, The Fighter, represented a key artistic turning point for him. His first film after years of futility following the release of I ♥ Huckabees, the boxing … Continue reading Knock on the door and the door knocks back
In the film Dallas Buyers Club, when Ron Woodruff is told he has AIDS, he’s also told he has thirty days to live. Much is made of this countdown to mortality, with helpful onscreen title cards occasionally providing an update … Continue reading The boys next door, the mums and dads, newlyweds and nearly-deads
It’s been quite the season for movie stars portraying endurance in the face of overwhelming odds while operating in isolation. While premieres and the resulting opening chatter took place earlier, across successive weekends Sandra Bullock tumbled through space and Tom … Continue reading Odds and ends, odds and ends, lost time is not found again
As has been widely reported, 12 Years a Slave is difficult to watch. That’s by design, of course, but it’s not simply a dutiful willingness to meet the scourge of American slavery at the only place any creator of conscience … Continue reading I wish you could know what it means to be me, then you’d see and agree that every man should be free
Escape from Tomorrow is a helluva stunt and a mediocre movie. And I’m being generous with the latter assessment. The debut feature from writer-director Randy Moore traces one family’s problematic day at the Happiest Place on Earth, marked most notably … Continue reading But listen to the color of your dreams
A single scene can’t make a bad movie into a good movie, but it is possible to transform a good movie into one that’s near-great. At the very end of Captain Phillips, the new docudrama about a 2009 encounter between … Continue reading On your way to a world that others might have missed
When considering the merits of the new Alfonso Cuarón film, it’s advisable to remember the full title slapped on the front of the original script he wrote with his son Jonas: Gravity: A Space Adventure in 3-D. It’s that word … Continue reading Step up, step up, step up, the sky is open-armed
There’s an interesting shift in Nicole Holofcener’s usual storytelling technique that takes place in her latest film, Enough Said. Most of her big-screen efforts have involved multiple storylines all sharing relatively equal space, sometimes overlapping in the narrative but more … Continue reading You were told to not take chances, you missed out on new dances
It’s somewhat fitting that Lake Bell has spent at least a portion of the press tour for her feature directorial debut, In a World…, frankly discussing the the condescending attitude she’s encounter from some quarters. Specifically, Bell talked about the … Continue reading Every time you wake up I hope it’s under a blue sky
Woody Allen has sometimes be accused, not without some justification, of focusing on a certain rarefied version of the New York experience in his art. While he exists in a city teeming with working class people, his urban ecosystem is … Continue reading What a great world we all live in, even better, what a time to be here
Coffee for Two 