Tony Leung stars as martial arts master Ip Man in this lush, romantic take on the martial arts action genre.
Tag: 2013
‘The World’s End’ – pub crawling to the end of the world on Peacock
The third film in the “Cornetto” trilogy created by friends and collaborators Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg is cheeky fun.
‘Oblivion’ – Tom Cruise patrols a devastated Earth on HBO Max
Director Joseph Kosinski brings a grand visual scope and a great sense of energy to a film that borrows liberally from previous science fiction classics.
‘Snowpiercer’ – careening apocalyptic allegory on Netflix
Snowpiercer (2013), an international production from Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho and a French graphic novel, is a high-speed allegory speeding down the science fiction tracks of genre cinema. That’s the way I like this brand of filmmaking: with the symbols big, muscular, detailed, and punchy. You either give yourself over to the metaphor, in this […]
‘Words and Pictures’ on HBO Max and free on Kanopy
Words and Pictures (2013) is both a romantic drama, with Clive Owen as passionate but alcoholic English teacher at an expensive prep school and Juliette Binoche as the new art teacher who clashes with the brash Owen, and a pedagogical drama where a “war” between the written word and the image inspires the student body […]
‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ on Criterion Channel
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013), second feature from director / writer David Lowery, plays like the cinematic answer to an outlaw folk song. Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck play lovers Ruth and Bob, young adults who grew up fast under the watch of dubious father figure Skerrit (Keith Carradine) and ended up as small-time hold-up […]
Oscar-winning ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ on Peacock
Matthew McConaughey is so good in Dallas Buyers Club (2013) that he shows up the limitations of this drama based on true events. McConaughey lost a lot weight to play Ron Woodroof, a Texas electrician and rodeo rider in the late 1980s whose reckless lifestyle leaves him with AIDS, a diagnosis this redneck homophobe denies […]
Hugh Jackman is ‘The Wolverine’ on Disney+
The Wolverine (2013) is both a sequel and a reboot of the solo spin-off from the X-Men movies. Hugh Jackman is back with the abs and the adamantium claws as Logan, the ferocious fan favorite of the team, and the screenwriters draw from the ninja storylines of earlier Wolverine comic books: the dark, brooding loner […]
‘Fast & Furious 6’ on Peacock
Fast & Furious 6 (2013) was never meant to be an epitaph for Paul Walker, the lean, blue-eyed lead who, after a couple of misfire sequels, reunited with co-star Vin Diesel and helped steer the revived fuel-injected franchise into an international hit machine. But regardless of what happens with the seventh installment, which Walker was […]
Kelly Reichardt’s ‘Night Moves’ on Amazon Prime and free on Kanopy
Night Moves (2013), the fourth film that New York-based director Kelly Reichardt made in Oregon with screenwriter Jon Raymond, was her most commercial project to that time, though you won’t mistake this drama of eco-terrorists who blow a dam on a southern Oregon river for a Hollywood thriller. Reichardt and longtime screenwriting partner Jon Raymond […]