This movie left me conflicted. On the one hand, of course Sally Field is joyful and lovable, and she is a bright star. On the other hand, even as the bright music of Field plays, the film dances slowly with sad and pitiful, and while spinning around the floor, hurtful and mean-spirited cut in. Okay, so…
About five years ago, my dear friend and frequent movie companion put his total trust in me, and we went to see the animated (almost silent save for a few lines in Gaelic) French-Scottish film, The Illusionist (L’Illusionniste, 2010). I’ve never lived it down. Today, he indicated that we’d hit a new low. 😉 Okay, so not…
Ah, the Coen Brothers. Such diversity they have. Even when I look at my favorite films* they wrote, those are vastly different from each other. As is their latest, Hail, Caesar!, being in its own category. So let me be honest: the film made me feel not smart. Okay, that goes too far. But what I…
I’ve never read David Foster Wallace’s work (yet), but you needn’t have in order to dive deep into the new movie about his interview by Rolling Stone’s David Lipsky, who spent several days with the author while Wallace wrapped up his book tour on the heels of publishing Infinite Jest in 1996. After Wallace’s suicide…
What an interesting, engaging film Tangerine is. Occurring all in the course of a day, Christmas Eve, the movie follows Sin-Dee, a transgender prostitute just released from four weeks in jail, as she tries to find her boyfriend/pimp and confront him for cheating on her while she was in jail. To sum up the movie…
ROAR. “Can’t go thru life without seeing this.” When I asked my movie companion if he would indulge me in seeing this movie as our chosen film one evening, I described it and sent a write-up I’d found. The above was his reply. And even having seen it now, having cringed and rolled my eyes…
Go see the Oscar-nominated live action short films! What a delightful two hours, watching five separate films, varying in length between about 14 and 45 minutes. Jacksonvillians, they’re playing at SunRay for the next week, and given that you can get yummy food and beer and wine there all while supporting local small business, what…
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…
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…
Moonrise Kingdom is quirky and fun, even if quiet. There’s quite a who’s who in the cast—-mostly playing some very different roles than those we usually associate with each actor. Admittedly, it might be too quiet (some would say slow) for me on some days, but it actually has quite a bit to say. And…
Bernie. Fun. Light. Deep. Dark. Texas. East Texas. What an enjoyably odd story. Jack Black is, perhaps, at his best. He brings to Bernie a depth and whimsy that just makes him oddly likeable. And oddly intriguing. And oddly, well, odd. He’s certainly easy to like, no matter what he’s done. The movie mostly just…
I LOVED this book for the easy read it’s meant to be. It is for dog lovers, and even more so for those with dogs. If you’re a single woman (or a woman who remembers dating), it’s even better. AND if you have some dysfunction in your family, then you’ve got it all for this…