Film – Chuck Koplinski

PHOTO COURTESY THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Dern in The Hateful Eight. His most assured and satisfying film since Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is unique in the director’s oeuvre in that it’s the only one he’s made he can truly call his own. Absent are the numerous […]

Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens Faced with the daunting task of resurrecting Star Wars for the big screen, director J.J. Abrams takes the same approach he did when helming the Star Trek reboot – recycle the past, give fans exactly what they want and do so with a subtle wink […]

Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase in In the Heart of the Sea. PHOTO COURTESY Warner Bros. Pictures On Aug. 12, 1819, the whaling ship Essex left Nantucket with a fresh lease on life. Wanting to keep it operational as long as possible, the company that owned the ship had given it a complete overhaul and […]

James McAvoy as Frankenstein and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor in Victor Frankenstein. Taking a cue from the literary reimagining that led to the big box office with Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes in 2009 and its sequel in 2011, director Paul McGuigan and screenwriter Max Landis attempt to breathe new life into another well-known […]

Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo in Spotlight. Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight is a movie that doesn’t have to raise its voice. Much like the reporters it focuses on, this is an assured work, firm in its convictions, telling its story in a factual, non-exploitive way, knowing full well that what it has to say, while necessary, […]

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Spectre. PHOTO COURTESY SONY PICTURES Calling Spectre the biggest misstep in the James Bond franchise may be a bit of an overstatement; to say that it’s a missed opportunity of titanic proportions would be more accurate. Failing to build on the momentum he so brilliantly generated with the game-changing […]

Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes in Truth. There’s never any doubt as to what James Vanderbilt’s intent is with his new film Truth.  Based on the memoir Truth and Duty: The Press, the President and the Privilege of Power, the movie goes out of its way to martyr all women who strive to get ahead […]

Mia Wasikowska as Edith Cushing in Crimson Peak. PHOTO COURTESY Universal Pictures The most visually sumptuous film of the year, Guillermo del Toro’s (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) haunted house tale Crimson Peak, is one part Edgar Allen Poe and one part Shirley Jackson, buoyed by impressive production design that makes the title mansion as important a […]