Wild Tales delivers on the promise of its title. An anthology of six original short stories from writer / director Damián Szifrón, it is a blackly comic film of modern life churning with frustration, rage, vengeance, and other decidedly civilized impulses. It opens on pure perfection, a darkly hilarious pre-credits revenge vignette that turns on […]
Liam Neeson is back in action in the gritty crime thriller Run All Night, his third and most satisfying collaboration with filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra (Unknown, Non-Stop). Neeson once again has a very specific skill set—his nickname isn’t Jimmy the Gravedigger for nothing—but he’s been pickling it in booze for years to drown the guilt of […]
For the past twenty years, one-time screen superstar Clint Eastwood has been more active behind the camera than in front of it, plugging along with his old school filmmaking with a consistency that is hard to match. He’s already won Best Picture and Best Director Oscars twice (for Unforgiven, 1992, and Million Dollar Baby, 2004). […]
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand After four nominations, Julianne Moore won her first Academy Award for “Still Alice,” playing a renowned linguistics professor who is diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease while still in the prime of a rich and happy life. It veers between familiar disease-of-the-week drama and touching portrait of a strong, […]
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin reunite for the first time since “9 to 5” for the new Netflix original series “Grace & Frankie.” They play old friends who turn to each other for support when their husbands (Sam Waterston and Martin Sheen) reveal their secret love affair and announce that they are getting married. It’s […]
“When I look in a mirror, I see a gargoyle.” J.M.W. Turner, as created in the Mike Leigh’s film Mr. Turner and incarnated by Timothy Spall, is not what we imagine for a grand British artist. Burly, rough-hewn, with speech punctuated by grunts and snorts, he’s a man from working class stock who has acquired […]
“Sons of Anarchy: Season 7,” the final season of the outlaw motorcycle drama that became a surprise hit for the FX network, is now available to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu Plus subscribers alike. Which means all three services offer the entire saga, a violent drama of family, brotherhood, loyalty, betrayal, and honor with Shakespearean […]
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand “Interstellar,” Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his hugely successful “Dark Knight” trilogy and cerebral caper film “Inception,” is as visually and conceptually ambitious a science fiction film as you’ll see on this kind of scale. The family drama at the center, with Matthew McConaughey as the single dad who leads a deep space […]
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies“ brings Peter Jackson’s supersized take on J.R.R. Tolkein’s fantasy to its conclusion with a battle that nearly dwarfs the Middle Earth-shattering war “Lord of the Rings” trilogy (pun intended). It’s Elf and Man against Dwarf, but for the Orcs it’s personal. This is the […]
A new month and a new batch of streaming titles (including some returning films), including two with Johnny Depp in his more ambitious days. In the 1997 undercover drama “Donnie Brasco” (1997) he’s an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates the mob and a heartbreaking performance by Al Pacino as a low-level mobster and big-shot wannabe, […]
