[8] Writer/director Alex Garland (The Beach, Sunshine) casts Natalie Portman as a biologist who joins a team of other female scientists into a mysterious, growing dome called ‘the shimmer’. Inside they quickly learn that the phenomenon is altering the DNA of flora and fauna — including themselves. They head to the source of the mystery, a lighthouse where a meteor crashed years ago. Will they …
[6] Two married couples, one new to Los Angeles, meet for dinner on a night that leads them into a marital and sexual quandary. At first, the newcomers (Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling) enjoy letting their hair down, but after their hosts (Jason Schwartzman and Judith Godrèche) cross the line of social norms a few times, they begin to wonder where the shenanigans are headed. …
[7] In this movie set in the not-too-distant future, Frank Langella stars as an aging ex-burglar whose grown son (James Marsden) buys him a caretaker robot. At first Frank isn’t too fond of his mechanical companion, but when he learns he can get the robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) to learn his old criminal behavior and help in a few local heists, an unlikely friendship …
[4] Paul Rudd leads an ensemble cast in this dramedy about a naïve, aimless man who free-loads off his three sisters after he’s released from prison. Conceptually, this is the perfect ‘adorable doofus’ role for an affable actor like Paul Rudd. And he does a fine job as expected. But Our Idiot Brother is so rooted in telling the dramatic story of three sisters who …
[6] Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s (The Place Beyond the Pines) melancholy love story, Blue Valentine. The film cuts back and forth between two timelines, with Williams and Gosling playing Brooklyn lovers at both the beginning and end of a relationship. Cianfrance brings his documentary filmmaking skills to bear, coaxing powerful, authentic performances out of his two stars, and utilizing …
[8] Writer/director Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt) takes us on a trip through California wine country with two middle-aged college buddies in Sideways, based on a novel by Rex Pickett. Paul Giamatti plays a divorced junior high school teacher suffering from depression and anxiety whose dream of becoming a published author is about the only thing keeping him going. Thomas Haden Church is a somewhat …
[7] Ruth Chatterton is our title character, a bootlegging madam in 1906 San Francisco. The big earthquake claims the lives of her father and fiancée, and she ends up giving birth in a Chinatown basement. When poverty gives her no option, she gives up her baby for adoption. She straightens up and returns years later to reclaim him, only to find he no longer remembers …
[7] In this TV movie co-written by Truman Capote, a prisoner (Alan Alda) and a guard (Clu Gulager) start life in prison on the same day and quickly learn what a dangerous and corrupt environment it is. Both men seek to shed light on the injustice, but will either of them survive to see the system reformed? Its production values are relatively unvarnished, but The …
[6] After their daughter tells them about ‘naked games’ she played with an old man, two parents (Patrick Allen and Gwen Watford) take the old man to court. But they find themselves the unlikely target of the town’s scorn for trying to smear the name of the man’s rich and powerful family. Is their nine-year old daughter (Janina Faye) prepared for harrowing cross-examination and medical …
[7] Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston square off in this western about a father and daughter fighting over who will control the future of the family’s sprawling cattle ranch. The relationship begins as a loving, mentoring one, but transforms into a battle between master manipulators. When Huston hangs a belligerent squatter who’s also Stanwyck’s childhood paramour, they cross the point of no return. The Furies …
Copyright © 2024 | Theme by MH Themes