“I feel like I ambushed you,” said my vegetarian movie companion at the end of watching Unity. But I didn’t feel that way. Sure, the movie uses over-the-top images to promote against cruel treatment of animals (which I too am against), but as the writer and director noted during the Q&A after the film (the…
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…
A French film (with subtitles), but not nominated as Best Foreign film, Two Days, One Night came on my radar through its fantastic performance by its lead actress, Marion Cotillard. Cotillard has the nomination for Best Actress (some say taking the spot otherwise that would have gone to Jennifer Aniston for Cake), and Cotillard, as…
This is the first I’ve seen the animated Oscar-nominated shorts. Thus, I was ill-equipped to be able to better warn my girlfriends who came along with me. No, these are not happy, singing Disny-style animated pieces. What they are, though, are an eclectic blend of fantastic displays of depth, emotion, imagination, and realism. Some made…
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…
This story needed to be told in this medium. This story needed to be told. I saw Selma today, on the first day of its wide release, needing to see it alone. I knew I could not tolerate seeing this film with anyone who cannot even try to understand the issues of voter disenfranchisement or…
Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a stellar performance in The Imitation Game. Although I’ve not seen him as Sherlock, after watching this movie, I want to. This is more than just a great performance. This is a great movie—one that provides Cumberbatch the prime stage on which to shine. As the story about Alan Turing, the genius…
In the world of narcissists, Walter Keane is the poster child. Christopher Waltz’s portrayal of him, while seemingly obscenely overdone, is probably spot on. That’s the sort of person it would take, after all, to be that much of a con—and a con who not only convinced those around him of what he wanted, but…
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’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…
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…
Matthew McConaughey delivers what I see as his best performance to date in Dallas Buyer’s Club, a movie great enough in its own right in telling its own incredibly compelling story but made remarkable by what McConaughey brings. Add Jared Leto, whose acting trumps McConaughey’s, and this is indeed a must-see film. The story, which…
Dame Judith Dench delivers a performance that amazed me at her ability to show how deep shame can run and how strong a grasp it keeps on a soul. Her quiet looks, her grimaced face, her bright glimpses of getting past, only to see her shrink back beneath the suffocating covers of inflicted and ingrained…
Movies have made me cry, weep, and hide my head in angst. Before watching this film, none had made me want to vomit at the level of disgust at humanity 12 Years a Slave evokes. Many cultures in the past have enslaved, imprisoned, and suppressed and oppressed others. (Many still do. Human trafficking, alas, is…