Sam Claflin as Will Traynor and Emilia Clarke as Lou Clark in Me Before You. PHOTO COURTESY Warner Bros. Many times in life, we often let our hearts overrule our minds. Such is the case with Thea Sharrock’s Me Before You, a slick piece of treacle that manages to charm as it flirts with insulting […]
Chuck Koplinski
Posted inArts & Culture
Plodding pace nearly derails War
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America From the very start, the Marvel movies have had a certain swagger. That’s not to say that Jon Favreau’s Iron Man had an arrogant air about it, but rather a sense of confidence in its storytelling abilities that was prevalent in all of the company’s subsequent entries. This was […]
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Doris more than it appears
Sally Field as Doris in Hello, My Name is Doris. The most surprising thing about Michael Showalter’s Hello, My Name is Doris is how thematically dense it proves to be. The comedy about one woman’s misguided attraction towards a much younger man also touches upon issues of abandonment, loneliness, loss of identity and, ultimately, self-awareness. […]
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Director’s pace, cast’s strength save Allegiant
Having salvaged the Divergent series with his fine work on Insurgent, director Robert Schwentke pulls off a similar stunt with Allegiant, the first part of the third entry in Veronica Roth’s dystopia trilogy. Though no one will ever argue that there’s anything remotely original about the story of the author’s heroine Tris and her continued […]
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Small but mighty
The nominees for the Oscar for Best Animated Short are (clockwise from upper left) “Bear Story,” “We Can’t Live without Cosmos,” “World of Tomorrow,” “Prologue,” and “Sanjay’s Super Team.” For the last ten years, the Oscar Nominated Short Films have been packaged and released to select theaters around the country. What began as an experiment […]
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Coens’ Caesar gently skewers Hollywood
Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix in Hail, Caesar. PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES The great thing about the Coen brothers’ films is that they not only entertain but challenge their audience, something wholly unique and altogether welcome where today’s American movies are concerned. Their latest, Hail, Caesar, is a case in point. On the surface it […]
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Stunted Forest fails to thrill
Yukiyoshi Ozama, Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney in The Forest. PHOTO COURTESY GRAMERCY PICTURES Not sure why early January has become the time for low-budget horror films to be released, but it’s become a bit of a tradition, at least where the last five years are concerned. And while quality is not always guaranteed, the […]
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Sisters a ribald treat
Amy Poehler as Maura Ellis and Tina Fey as Kate Ellis in Sisters. PHOTO COURTESY Universal Pictures What with their comedy Sisters being released on the same day as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you can’t help but wonder what its stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler did to doom their film to such a […]
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Beautiful Brooklyn a love story for the ages
Domhnall Gleeson as Jim Farrell and Saoirse Ronan as Ellis Lacey in Brooklyn. PHOTO COURTESY Fox Searchlight Pictures What a beautiful movie John Crowley has made in Brooklyn, the adaptation of Colm Toibin’s 2009 novel. This loving look back to early 1950’s America and one young Irish girl’s immigrant experience is a gorgeously rendered slice […]
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Kasbah fails to rock
Bill Murray in Rock the Kasbah. PHOTO COURTESY OPEN ROAD FILMS It’s never a good sign when, while watching a movie, your mind becomes preoccupied with questions like “I wonder at what point in the production process this went wrong?” and “Didn’t they realize they were making a colossal turd?” or “Do I need to […]
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Spies: intriguing but incomplete
Tom Hanks as James Donovan in Bridge of Spies. PHOTO COURTESY WALT DISNEY PICTURES In 1957, attorney James Donovan was given the unenviable task of representing accused Russian spy Rudolf Abel when he was charged with conspiracy against the United States. It was a duty he took on reluctantly but completed with a sense of […]
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Intern delivers exactly what you expect
Robert De Niro as Ben Whittaker and Anne Hathaway as Jules Ostin in The Intern. PHOTO COURTESY Warner Bros. Pictures I knew exactly what to expect with Nancy Myers’ The Intern and while there can be some comfort in having your expectations met (the idea they might be exceeded should never enter your mind with […]
