Anna Karenina is a challenging work. The novel, all 864 pages of it, is full of characters and dramatic circumstances that can seem unnatural or even unbelievable in modern time. The rigid social structures are the core of the work…
Stevee Taylor over at Cinematic Paradox is running a really cool blogathon. Bloggers are encouraged to make a For Your Consideration post for a film unlikely to garner any major awards attention this year. Considering the sameness of the critics…
Silver Linings Playbook is the story of two adults living with mental illness. They come together to compete in a ballroom dancing contest that can lead them to their individual goals. For Pat, a man recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder,…
Imagine, if you will, the story of a director told in the style of the director’s films. Hitchcock takes a big stab at doing just that. John J. McLaughlin adapts Stephen Rebello’s non-fiction book about the making of Psycho into…
The marketing campaign for The Collection could be “Get in, get scared, get out.” This is one of the tightest horror films to come out in years. It’s a big challenge to build genuine suspense when you’re constantly moving and…
Ang Lee knows how to make a beautiful looking film. Say what you will about the substance of his storytelling abilities, what he chooses to focus on always looks good onscreen. Life of Pi is an ideal match for Ang…
Skyfall, the latest James Bond film, has a lot of things going for it. It’s really funny. The cast is fantastic. The underlying premise is also very strong. It’s a beautiful film with a great look to it and will…
Mark O’Brien is a professional poet and freelance writer who has spent most of his life in an iron lung. Stricken by polio at a young age, O’Brien developed a sharp wit and a philosophy that everything is funny. Mark…
If you’ve never been involved in a cappella music, the first 20 or so minutes of Pitch Perfect might be rough chop to to sail through. There are a lot of jokes in a faux-Diablo Cody wins the Oscar for…
In Flight, Denzel Washington stumbles around for two hours as a chronic alcoholic, coke fiend, and marijuana enthusiast while slurring out that he’s fine to take the stand in a hearing to determine if his alcohol and drug abuse caused…
The year is 1979. A large militarized group of Iranian citizens storm the American embassy in retaliation for the United States taking in their deposed Shah for medical treatment. Six embassy workers escape to the Canadian ambassador’s home. Their escape…
Lana Wachowski, Tom Twyker, and Andy Wachowski have accomplished something very special in Cloud Atlas. They discovered a clear and natural way to tell a metaphysical narrative of love, kindness, and actions echoing throughout all of time. Each scene in…
Nostalgia is a risky thing to build a film around. Are the memories you have indicative of the experience everyone else had with the subject in question? Will the subject translate to a wide enough audience to be accessible? Wreck-It…
Last week, Disney announced that they purchased LucasArts from George Lucas for just over four billion dollars. They intend to make a new trilogy of films that will start to come out in 2015. To be perfectly honest, I think…