As I sat down with my movie companion to watch this film, I realized the pattern of my recent movies–all focused on music. Yet all three of those films approach the subject differently. Rocketman was a direct sort of biopic using Elton’s John music to loosely tell his story. Yesterday used the Beatles music to…
As my movie companion noted after we saw Bohemian Rhapsody, a jolly time! (Okay, so that was part my fabulous company as we spent a few hours after the movie catching up over lunch and a few beers, but the movie was a great time too!) Really, though, there’s little I had to complain about watching…
My timing in seeing films sometimes causes wonder in me. Watching the painfully self-destructive, fatal behavior of an addict on the screen rips at my heart. Seeing the vacant stare that hides the apparent hurt and pain behind those eyes brings such sadness. These are the things that rang out to me in watching Amy, the…
I enjoyed this film—for what it was and for what it did not do. Sure, it could have been deeper. It could have been darker. But even the title indicated it wasn’t trying to do those things. And it was nice to see a country through a different lens than the one permanently smudged and…
If you know me, then you probably could guess that I had fun watching Into the Woods. And you’d guess correctly. Others might want more of the movie than mere fun, but to me, that’s what I expected. And I enjoyed the time watching the film. I’d not seen the stage production or any other…
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,…
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…
Inside Llewyn Davis is an enjoyable movie—dare I say, an easy movie. After the other movies I’ve seen this season, it was a nice change. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a pretty movie or a happy movie. But it’s basic. It’s also basic done very well. It doesn’t have a grand statement on life;…