Category: Drama
-
Brooklyn (*****) if only every girl was Irish this way
Brooklyn – 2015 Director John Crowley Screenplay Nick Hornby based on the book by Colm Tóibín Starring Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters, Fiona Glasscott, Jessica Paré There is a symmetry and beauty in the art in Brooklyn that is rarely seen in film. It’s a straightforward story of the complicated dream of immigration that takes place…
-
10 Cloverfield Lane: Children behave… (****1/2)
This is the rare case where the tie in works for the right reasons.
-
Steve Jobs (*****) is a good find
Steve Jobs – 2015 Director Danny Boyle Screenplay Aaron Sorkin based on the book by Walter Isaacson Starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Perla Haney-Jardine There’s nothing quite as appealing as Oscar bait that actually feels like a real work of art. What we have with Steve Jobs is nothing less than Boyle, Sorkin, Fassbender, Winslet and even Jeff…
-
Spotlight (****1/2) takes the road less travelled
Spotlight – 2015 Director Tom McCarthy Screenplay by McCarthy and Josh Singer Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Len Cariou, Jamey Sheridan, Paul Guilfoyle, Brian d’Arcy James, Billy Crudup In 2001, Marty Baron (Schreiber) is the new editor of the The Boston Globe. His perspective is that of an outsider and being so, he is not…
-
Joy (****) – Norma Rae can stuff it
Joy – 2015 Written and Directed by David O. Russell Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Edgar Ramirez, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Bradley Cooper, Elisabeth Röhm, Dascha Polanco If there is a special ability portrayed by the actors and director of Joy, it’s that none of this feels that much like a movie. This half-fiction portrayal of the life of the creator…
-
The Big Short (****) counts on us not liking bad news
The Big Short – 2015 Director Adam McKay Screenplay Charles Randolph and McKay Starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Marisa Tomei, Tracy Letts, Hamish Linklater, John Magaro, Byron Mann, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, Finn Wittrock, Melissa Leo There are a whole bunch of facts being spit out in The Big Short. Director and writer…
-
The Revenant (***1/2): It’s mostly true…mostly
It would be one thing if the story played a little closer to Hang ‘Em High and a bit less artificially constructed as A Beautiful Mind. The Academy never gave any awards to the first movie, though. The original Glass just wanted his gun back from Fitzgerald. DiCaprio’s Glass has to have a victim-class son…
-
Everest (***) : In the battle of you against the world…
Everest – 2015 Director Baltasar Kormákur Starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Robin Wright, Emily Watson, Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Kelley Screenplay William Nicholson, Simon Beaufoy Noted realist Franz Kafka once said: “In man’s struggle against the world, bet on the world.” Everest is the big screen chronicle of the story of a bunch of adventurers who refuse the logic of this…
-
Knock Knock (***) – It was free pizza
Knock Knock – 2015 Director Eli Roth Starring Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Ignacia Allamand, Aaron Burns, Colleen Camp Screenplay Guillermo Amoedo, Nicolás López, Eli Roth If the story is familiar, it’s because we saw it before in 1977. Then it was Death Game, starring two of the film’s producers, Sandra Locke and Colleen Camp. Camp makes a cameo in the film as…
-
The Martian (****1/2) – The good of the one…
The Martian – 2015 Director Ridley Scott Screenplay Drew Goddard based on the book by Andy Weir Starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong In a time in which one person taking the lives of many others gets so much attention, it is nice to see a work of art…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 