[7] Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood) won his third Oscar for his convincing portrait of America’s 16th president during the final months of the Civil War. Lincoln is a decades-long pet project for director Steven Spielberg, who chose Angels in America scribe Tony Kushner to make Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln the foundation …
[7] Visionary director Julie Taymor (Titus, Across the Universe) brings Shakespeare’s The Tempest to the big screen, with the lead role of Prospero played not by a man, as per tradition, but by Helen Mirren. Mirren’s Prospera is raising her daughter (Felicity Jones) on a barren, mystical island where she can practice the magic that got her banished from society. The film opens with Prospera …
[7] Robert Redford leads an all-star ensemble cast under the direction of Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams). Redford plays a high-tech security professional who works with a team of specialists to test security systems. When government agents blackmail him into stealing a mysterious new piece of technology from the Russians, Redford and his team find themselves in over their heads — especially when he …
[6] Jodie Foster directs this universal story of holiday family togetherness, warts and all. Holly Hunter stars as a woman who travels to be with her parents for Thanksgiving after just being let go from her job. While she tries to obscure the truth from her mom and dad (Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning), she revels in the rebellious nature of her somewhat-estranged, gay brother …
[6] Ryan Gosling plays a young prosecutor pitted against slicker-than-snot Anthony Hopkins, representing himself in a trial where he’s accused of murdering his wife. Hopkins is about to get away with everything, but Gosling is determined to poke a hole in Hopkins’ seemingly air-tight alibi. The casting is safe and predictable, but the script is fairly tight and twisty, and kept me engaged to the end. With …
[4] George Clooney directs, co-writes, and co-stars in this examination of famed broadcast newsman Edward R. Murrow’s attempts to thwart McCarthyism at CBS. David Strathairn brings his usual nonchalance to the role of Murrow. Clooney plays his right-hand man, Fred Friendly. McCarthyism was scary and Murrow’s victories were important, but Clooney keeps Good Night, and Good Luck so restrained, it teeters on becoming a snooze …
[7] Writer/director John Sayles serves up this intimate character drama about a TV soap star who has to learn to find new purpose in life after a car accident leaves her permanently wheelchair-bound. A live-in nurse becomes her lifeline, which makes Passion Fish a female buddy movie of sorts. Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves, Battlestar Galactica) plays the actress and Alfre Woodard (Cross Creek, Primal …
[7] I’m always on the lookout for a good monster movie, and Godzilla is one of the most legendary monsters in movie history, right? But he’s still not a sure thing. We all remember the Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich crap-fest from 1998, right? Well, thank goodness Monsters director Gareth Edwards takes the big lizard more seriously than they did. And thank goodness Edwards knows …
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