Category: Drama
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Black Swan is not exactly Let’s Dance
Black Swan – 2010 Directed by Darren Aronofsky Starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey Written by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin “Let’s Dance” – Lyrics by David Bowie “Let’s dance Let’s dance Let’s dance, put on your red shoes and dance the blues Let’s dance, to the song they’re playin’ on the radio…” Well,…
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The Next Three Days feels like a week or so
The Next Three Days – 2011 Directed by Paul Haggis Starring Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy, Olivia Wilde, Jason Beghe Written by Haggis and Fred Cavayé The Next Three Days is a well-intentioned, methodical, and ultimately plodding remake of a French film (written and directed by Cavayé) called Anything for Her. It follows its…
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127 Hours allows the discovery of the weight of life
127 Hours – 2010 Directed by Danny Boyle Starring James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Clémence Poésy, Lizzy Kaplan, Treat Williams, Kate Burton Written by Simon Beaufoy, Danny Boyle based on the story “Between A Rock And A Hard Place” by Aron Ralston Aron Ralston (Franco) is an intelligent guy. At Carnegie Mellon University, he was…
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The Fighter is tailor made by Wahlberg
The Fighter – 2010 Director David O. Russell Starring Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo and a horde of Irish Sisters Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamsay, Eric Johnson Every Oscar season is back loaded with all types of movies like The Fighter. They ought to just call every fall the Reader’s Digest…
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How Do You Know when a movie is too long?
How Do You Know – 2010 Written and Directed by James L. Brooks Starring Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson When George Lucas made his horrible Star Wars prequels, many cynical people just assumed it was a money grab. While Lucas is acutely aware of the process in which profit is accrued, he…
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Millennium Trilogy, Part 3: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, but good
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – 2009 Directed by Daniel Alfredson Starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, Mike Spreitz, Annika Hallin, Aksel Morisse, Georgi Staykov, Anders Ahlbom Written by Jonas Frykberg, Ulf Rydberg, based on the novel by Stieg Larsson There is a moment early on when Lisbeth Salander (Rapace) lays nearly helpless in the…
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Winter’s Bone shows an the all too real effect of Meth
Winter’s Bone – 2010 Directed by Debra Granik Starring Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garrett Dillahunt, Lauren Sweester, Dale Dickey, Shelly Waggener Written by Debra Granik and Anne Rosselini based on the book by Daniel Woodrell In all honesty, as good a movie as Winter’s Bone, I don’t think I could ever watch it again. It…
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Fincher’s The Social Network is a perfect marriage about an imperfect team
The Social Network – 2010 Director David Fincher Starring Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Rashida Jones, Rooney Mara, Armie Hammer, Brenda Song, Max Minghella, Joseph Mazzello Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich David Fincher is perhaps the finest director working today. He certainly is my favorite.…
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Wall Street Money Never Sleeps and neither does Michael Douglas
Wall Street Money Never Sleeps – 2010 Directed by Oliver Stone Starring Shia LaBeouf, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Eli Wallach, Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon Screenplay by Allan Loeb, Stephen Schiff based on characters created by Oliver Stone, Stanley Weiser When Oliver Stone made the film Wall Street in 1987, he hoped to shed…
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Just looking for a heart like mine – Hachi: A Dog’s Tale
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale Directed by Lasse Hallström Starring Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Sara Roemer, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Jason Alexander, Erick Avari Screenplay by Stephen P. Lindsey A movie comes around every once in a while that tells a tale so astounding, that no one could make it up. Back in 1920’s Japan, a professor at the…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 