Big Miracle: a whale of a tale and a miracle of a movie [MOVIE REVIEW]
There are miracles for everyone in “Big Miracle.” The film was written by Jack Amiel and Michael Berger, based on the book Freeing the Whales by Thomas Rose, and wonderfully directed by Ken Kwapis. Based on a true story, “Big Miracle” follows the controlled chaos and unlikely cast of characters who found a way to […]
Lula is a lulu, and not in a good way [MOVIE REVIEW]
Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva is truly one of the world’s most fascinating political leaders. Bubbling up from the rural slums in Santos and living in a poverty too draconian for the first world to imagine, he is a case of brilliance, cunning, compassion and revolutionary zeal integrated within a natural-born leader who brought change […]
“Joffrey” documentary leaps off the screen [MOVIE REVIEW]
Dance is a complete art form. Done well it incorporates all the senses, for it is movement and music and drama engulfing the spirit. Trying to explain its essence to a non-dancer can be nigh unto impossible, but into this void comes the phenomenal documentary “Joffrey, Mavericks of American Dance.” At the age of 11, […]
Liam Neeson’s intensity drives The Grey [MOVIE REVIEW]
“The Grey” stars Liam Neeson as Ottaway, a cast-out like so many others living and working in an oil field somewhere in the outer reaches at the end of the world in Alaska. Ottaway has nowhere to go, so it’s fitting he ended up with so many others who’ve used up all their free passes. Leaving […]
Man On A Mission: a dream of space travel, achieved, and filmed [MOVIE REVIEW]
Richard Garriott has dreamed of space travel since the time his father Owen, one of the original six Scientist-Astronauts chosen by NASA, flew missions on Skylab in the early 70s and the Space Shuttle in 1983. Owen’s credentials were impeccable: a PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford where he was also an associate professor in […]
Carol Channing Larger than Life: a valentine to a true star [MOVIE REVIEW]
“Carol Channing Larger than Life” is the title of a documentary by Dori Berinstein and the perfect description of its subject because Carol Channing was born larger than life. Growing up in San Francisco, as a child she helped her mother distribute “The Christian Science Monitor” backstage at the Curran Theater. Overwhelmed by the “church-like” […]
Haywire: spy thriller doesn’t quite thrill [MOVIE REVIEW]
There is a thin line between a hit and a miss, and sometimes within the same film you’ll get both. Such is the case with “Haywire,” Stephen Soderbergh’s attempt at making a spy thriller. I say attempt because he doesn’t quite succeed. Mallory Kane, a “contractor” with a private “agency” was hired to extract a […]
Joyful Noise: not much joyful in this noise [MOVIE REVIEW]
To say that “Joyful Noise” is a joyful mess would be giving the film too much credit. That is not to say that there isn’t merit in many of the songs or in the singing because there is, but generally, from start to finish, “Joyful Noise” is trite, predictable, unrealistic and leaden. The Pacashau Sacred […]
‘Pina’: Wim Wender’s flawed, beautiful 3D dance documentary [MOVIE REVIEW]
“Pina,” the new documentary about the remarkable modern dance deity Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal by acclaimed filmmaker Wim Wenders, is a highly ambitious film. In the works, or at least in Wenders’ imagination, for a very long time, it became almost a running joke between Bausch and Wenders as to the timeframe. The […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: good, but unnecessary [MOVIE REVIEW]
Final Jeopardy Answer: Because Americans won’t read subtitles. Question: Why did they remake “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”? Certainly the real answer to that question is that an English language remake was supremely more marketable and therefore more potentially profitable than the original Swedish film of the first of the late Stieg Larssen’s international […]
A Separation: an Iranian detective story without any detectives
Sitting before an unseen judge, Simin (Leila Hatami) asks for a divorce from her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi). They have finally received visas to leave Iran with their daughter and work abroad but he refuses to leave his father, in the later stages of Alzheimer’s, behind. Finding no valid grounds under the law, the judge […]
The Iron Lady: Thatcher revisited, by Streep
Margaret Thatcher did a great deal for the women’s movement in spite of herself. As abhorrent as I found her philosophy and policies, she was one of the first women who successfully removed the word “woman” from her descriptor. She was not the female Prime Minister of England; she was, simply (or more to the […]
War Horse: Speilberg’s beautiful but flawed anti-war epic [MOVIE REVIEW]
“War Horse,” Steven Spielberg’s newest release, is a technical beauty. Cinematographer Janusz Kaminsky, production designer Rick Carter, costume designer Joanna Johnston and composer John Williams are the true stars of this film. Based on the children’s book by Michael Morpurgo and the award winning stage play written by Nick Stafford, screenwriters Lee Hall (“Billy Elliott”) […]
London River: a powerful film about the unlikely intersections of human lives [MOVIE REVIEW]
Rachid Bouchareb is probably not a name you’ve heard before although he’s a director/writer/producer who has been nominated for an Academy Award three times and has racked up innumerable awards around the world for his intensely felt, deeply reasoned stories that challenge the boundaries of human expectation. His new, or actually newly released, film “London […]
Rollicking “Tintin” leaps off screen [MOVIE REVIEW]
“The Adventures of Tintin,” directed by Steven Spielberg, is a rollicking, roaring adventure sure to captivate children and their parents the world over. Adapted from the Belgian comic book series created by Hergé, writers Stephen Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish have captured the innocence, adventure and intelligence of the irrepressibly and impossibly young investigative […]
Carnage is carnage [MOVIE REVIEW]
“Carnage” is carnage. Roman Polanski, with considerable help from Yasmina Reza herself, has taken a new translation of the play, “God of Carnage” and eliminated every vestige of comedy from within. Granted, it’s still Reza’s play but now it is without Christopher Hampton’s masterful translation or Matthew Warchus’s deft directorial timing and understanding that for […]