If you’ve followed my movie musings for any length of time, you too are surely surprised to find this one on my page. Admittedly, I saw it a few weeks ago, completely forgetting to add it to this list. But I should stay true to my self-imposed guidelines of what I include here (movies seen…
Whiplash is a movie about passion. And although passion can be a wonderful quality, at times, it can also take someone too far. It can grip too tightly. It can create an irrational justification for behavior. It can sever humanity from the human. It can hurt. Having seen the trailer for Whiplash a few times,…
Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me is a charming film that showcases the later life of Elaine Stritch, Broadway actress. The show focuses on Elaine at age 86, including her times of ebbing health as age and life catch up with her. So although she discusses her past many acts on Broadway (five Tony nominations (one win)),…
If you’ve read many of my movie reviews and impressions over the past, you know that this is the time of year my visits to the theater increase as those Oscar-worthy movies start gracing the screens. I seek lists on the web for what movies might make the cut come nomination time. Birdman was on…
I rarely see a movie on opening day, so to see one three days *before* opening day was quite a treat. We had yummy Corner Taco before hand. We had a pitcher of local pale ale poured and cold. We had a large bowl of the best popcorn in Duval County. And we had two…
It had been some time since I read the book, Gone Girl. I talked briefly with a friend or two about it before seeing the movie, only then remembering the depths of the diabolic nature of the characters. Worried, as we often are when a great story from print is brought to cinema, I went…
I wanted to see The Drop as it was James Gandolfini’s last film. (I was utterly charmed by him in Enough Said, and I wanted to see this side of his acting, as I have yet to watch The Sopranos.) While Gandolfini was fine, I was wonderfully surprised by and captivated by Tom Hardy and…
Chef cooks up a delicious treat in this light, heartwarming summer flick. I laughed heartily. I snorted loudly (thank goodness I was with a friend neither offended nor embarrassed by my loud expression of funny). And I cried. Yes, the tears flowed unexpectedly at one point, but that just shows the warmth of this film.…
There was great build-up between my friend and me to the new film about the great lizard (100 meters tall, according to my movie companion, whom I teased for using the metric system). Said companion sat next to me for our last giant-monster movie, as I giggled and rolled my eyes at the silliness. So…
I am tempted to say the musical score was my favorite part of this film, but is hardly fair to the rest of it, which was a hilariously clever and raunchy romp through the dangers of the old west. A Million Ways to Die in the West (it really does focus on all the ways…
At the end of Grand Budapest Hotel, I wanted to clap my hands in delight. Indeed—delight best sums up how I felt about the film. It was a fun, quirky, witty romp along a tale of eccentric antics, fabulously entertaining in spite of the darker thread of the war coming to Europe. Having that pending…
Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza from Italy) is, well, different. As my movie companion and I left the theater, we shared our perplexity over what, exactly, the movie was about. I’ve sat with it for several days now, but still, I’ve not much more than questions and…
The second foreign film of last weekend was Bethlehem—the offering from the Israeli director on the subject of Palestinian informants. I wonder had I switched the order in which I saw the films whether I would have liked this one more. Or less. On reflection, I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered that much. While Bethlehem…
I’m sandwiching my weekend with two foreign films; other than having seen both previews, this is all else I knew going in, from NPR: “Audiences are being offered an intriguing exercise in double vision over the next couple of weeks: two movies about Palestinian informants and their complicated relationships with Israel’s secret service, one directed…
Per the critics on Fandango, The Lego Movie was a “must go” flick. Per my friend’s friend’s review, it had lots to offer. Per me, I wonder how many people will be satisfied to stop at the surface and believe they saw the underlying themes, only to ignore the deeper current I felt running through…