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 […]
Movies
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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 […]
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The Visit – A Modern Fairy Tale of the Grimm-est Sort
If anyone is in need of and deserving of a comeback, it’s writer/director M. Night Shyamalan. Having made a splash with The Sixth Sense in 1999, the filmmaker proceeded to make a series of thrillers, each less effective than the last, painting himself into a corner by steadfastly adhering to the formula that made him […]
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Redford and Nolte make for a pleasant Walk
Robert Redford as Bill Bryson and Nick Nolte as Katz in A Walk in the Woods. Much like its two main characters, A Walk in the Woods is a film that’s comfortable and familiar. There are no surprises to be had while watching it; the platitudes it espouses we’ve heard ad nauseum and the events […]
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Four far from fantastic
Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, Kate Mara as Sue Storm and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm in Fantastic Four. PHOTO COURTESY 20TH CENTURY FOX If nothing else, director Josh Trank has succeeded in doing what I had thought was impossible – he’s made a boring superhero movie. For some […]
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Haunting Gift one of the year’s best
Jason Bateman in The Gift. Smart, uncompromising and timely, Joel Edgerton’s excellent new thriller The Gift is a sly little film that mirrors its main character in all the best ways. Unassuming and deceptive, the movie slowly sucks you in, leading the viewer down what seems a familiar path only to play against expectations, shunning […]
