Tony Leung stars as martial arts master Ip Man in this lush, romantic take on the martial arts action genre.
Category: biographical
‘I’m Not There’ – the lives of Bob Dylan on Amazon Prime
Todd Haynes draws from the songs, lives (real and imagined) and mysteries of Bob Dylan for his impressionistic survey of the artist, his art, his interaction (and at times collision) with the culture he both grabs onto and flees, and the mysteries that surround him.
Jessie Eisenberg is Mark Zuckerberg in ‘The Social Network’ on Amazon Prime, Hulu and Peacock
David Fincher directs Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay that uses the creation of Facebook as a study in hubris, ambition, betrayal, and class.
Channing Tatum is ‘Magic Mike’ on Hulu and HBO Max
Steven Soderbergh directs Channing Tatum in a film inspired by his life as a male stripper.
‘Marie Antoinette’ – decadent young royals on Amazon Prime
Kirsten Dunst is Marie Antoinette (2006) in Sofia Coppola’s portrait of the decadent, indifferent monarchy that toppled in the French Revolution. Marie is a teenage Austrian princess married off to France’s distant young King Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) and sent to the alien of the French court. She’s a political naïf dropped into a world […]
‘Love & Mercy’ – Brian Wilson’s journey on Hulu and Peacock
Capturing the life of Brian Wilson, the troubled genius who pushed the surf pop sound of The Beach Boys into psychedelic symphonies as he spiraled into depression, in just a few key years is a tricky proposition. Love & Mercy (2014), a biopic that parallels the boyish enthusiasm and free-flowing creative drive of young visionary […]
Last chance: Morgan Freeman is Nelson Mandella in ‘Invictus’ on Netflix
Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandella as the newly-elected President of South Africa in Invictus (2009), Clint Eastwood’s reverent tribute to Nelson Mandella’s efforts to unite post-apartheid South Africa. This isn’t a biography of Mandella. Audiences come to the film with the understanding that Nelson Mandella spent 24 years in prison for protesting South Africa’s apartheid […]
’20th Century Women’ free on Kanopy and Hoopla
20th Century Women (2016) stars Annette Bening as Dorothea, a single mother of a teenage boy (Lucas Jade Zumann) determined to give him good life lessons with a little help from her friends. Elle Fanning is her son’s best friend, who escapes her troubled family and is warmly welcomed Dorothea, and Greta Gerwig and Billy […]
‘Not Fade Away’ – coming of age in the sixties on Hulu
Not Fade Away (2012), the autobiographical feature debut by The Sopranos creator David Chase, is not the usual rise-and-fall story of the rock and roll band. There is a band at the center of the film and Douglas (John Magaro), a Jersey kid who graduates from high school as an overlooked schlub looking for something […]
‘Almost Famous’ – living the rock dream on Amazon Prime
Almost Famous (2000), Cameron Crowe’s thinly fictionalized autobiography, is deftly poised between rosy affection, thoughtful remembrance, and giddy adolescent awe. As perhaps it should be. The story of 15-year-old William (Crowe’s stand-in, played by Patrick Fugit) sent by Rolling Stone magazine to tour with an up-and-coming band (Stillwater, a fictional amalgamation of real-life bands The […]