I saw Cake as more than a movie about a woman addicted to prescription pain pills. And it’s more than a movie about a woman recovering from a debilitating accident. That said, it could have been even more. I’m not sure how, but something was off. Jennifer Anniston was not one of those off things,…
Boyhood was a great film to watch, even if it wasn’t a particularly great film. The premise, filming a movie using the same cast over a twelve-year period, filmed to watch as Mason grows from the pictured six-year-old to a young man graduating from high school, is unique and makes the movie stand out. And…
I expected a predictable premise with plenty of Hollywood sap, a familiar plot, and a feel-good ending. I think with another cast, that might be all that St. Vincent did, fading quickly into the background of bigger, better, deeper movies. But this cast works together so beautifully, each also shining individually, that St. Vincent also…
Too many people associate King with the horror genre, but his writing spans so much more. 11/22/63 is a great example. Sure, there’s a science-fiction element (sci-fi or supernatural? what’s the difference? I really don’t know) with the time-travel notion, but for the most part, it’s part historical novel, part love story, part human condition…
Confession: physics is my least favorite science. (Least favorite. I do like science. Consider, I’ve my minor degree in biology.) But physics….eh. Add “astro” to it, and it doesn’t improve. Black holes. Eh. These are things I do not understand, and I again confess: I don’t really care to. And Stephen Hawking? Well, I didn’t…
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…
The best word I can find to describe the book is exactly that used to describe its characters: interesting. In a way, the book is unremarkable. But on reflection and conversation with a fellow reader, that is just what makes this book so rich. My initial comment to a friend regarding the book involved the…
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…
When this book was recommended to me, I was basically told, “I’m not going to tell you anything about it. Just read it, and then we’ll talk. Don’t read anything about the book—not even the book jacket or cover. Don’t even look at the cover—just read the book.” And so I did. And so I…
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…
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…
The Broken Circle Breakdown is a Belgian film highlighting bluegrass music and frustrations with traditional religion and evangelical influences in politics and medicine as told through the relationship, love, and despair of two artists. I did not get to see the other foreign films up for an Oscar this year, and I’m not sure this…
August: Osage County presents a painful, bitter, sad look at family dysfunction without much hope or goodness involved. It is a harsh look at a family struggling through addiction, death, manipulation, divorce, infidelity, suicide, and mental illness. The raw nature of the emotional journey of the family picked with sharp nails at the scabs of…
It’s been several weeks since I saw Her. My delay in writing, though, should not reflect a bit on how good this movie was. It was good. And what a surprise of a lot of warmth I found in this quirky little movie. When I saw the trailers, it felt formulaic. It felt forced. It…