[7] Rupert Everett and Colin Firth star in this coming-of-age period drama set in an elite 1930s English boys’ school, where militaristic tradition and hierarchy seems far more important than education. There is a sense of brotherhood among the students, even though Everett’s character is openly gay and Firth’s character is a devout Marxist. But when another student commits suicide, the school cracks down on …
[6] James Wilby and Hugh Grant star as young lovers driven apart by oppressive heteronormativity in pre-World War I England. The two meet in college and cautiously profess their love for one another. But when a fellow gay student is put on trial for immorality and his career promises ruined, Clive (Grant) gets cold feet and decides to live a ‘straight’ lifestyle. The two remain …
[8] Future Oscar-winner Laura Dern (Marriage Story) gives her first leading performance in this adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” the story of a fifteen-year-old girl who pursues male attention without considering the potential consequences. Dern’s character, Connie, lies to her family about her whereabouts, ditching the mall for the beach, or the movies for a bar across …
[4] Future Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) co-stars with Byron Thames and Maddie Corman in this dramedy about three friends experiencing the pangs of adolescence. Connelly’s character balances her career ambitions and academic studies while entering the dating scene. Corman plays her lustful best friend who gives her heart away far too easily, and Thames plays a boy who runs away from home after …
[5] Edward Norton (Fight Club) plays a reformed neo-nazi trying to stop his younger brother (Terminator 2‘s Edward Furlong) from following in his ugly footsteps in American History X. But breaking free from the skinheads who idolize him turns out to be a bigger challenge than expected. Norton shows commitment and range in a flashy role that earned him an Oscar nomination, but I can’t …
[8] Hollywood often waters down characters and storylines to make them universally appealing. Filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson with Licorice Pizza, or David O. Russell with Joy and The Fighter, are challenging that notion with stories of tremendous specificity — specificity of character, location, obstacle, and endeavor — that find universal appeal without dilution. In pursuit of that specificity, Anderson casts two unknown actors as …
[7] Colin Farrell stars as a free-spirited young man who enters into a romantic triangle with a woman (Robin Wright) and his boyhood friend (Dallas Roberts). A Home at the End of the World, based on the novel by Michael Cunningham (The Hours), takes us through three decades in these characters’ lives. The first quarter of the movie shows us how Farrell’s character was shaped …
[6] George Cukor directs Katharine Hepburn as Jo March in one of the earliest screen adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, a chronicle of the lives and loves of four sisters growing up in New England during the Civil War. There’s intrinsic nostalgia and sentimentality to the storytelling, but Cukor never lets the film become maudlin. That’s largely owed to Hepburn’s contribution. The then-controversial …
[4] Lou Taylor Pucci stars in writer/director Mike Mills’ adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel about a nervous high school student afflicted with thumbsucking. Once he’s prescribed ritalin, Pucci’s character starts to feel more confident. Unfortunately, the drug also turns him into an asshole. If Thumbsucker focused more on the angle of drug abuse, it might better distinguish itself from the myriad of other quirky indie …
[8] Two restless Mexican teenagers (Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna) take a road trip with an older woman (Maribel Verdú) who just learned her husband cheated on her. Their destination is a private beach that may or may not exist, but as with all road trip movies, it’s the journey that counts. Demons of the past are confronted, sexual discoveries are made, and new …
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