Shutter Island (2009) opens, appropriately, shrouded in fog. Then our hero, Detective Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), cuts through the gray, standing on the prow of a tug boat chugging toward an isolated island hospital for the criminally insane. Daniels and his partner (Mark Ruffalo), city cops from an era of fedoras and trench coats and […]
Hugo (2011), Martin Scorsese’s first family film (it’s PG!) and his first engagement with 3D, is a love letter to the magic of cinema. Based on the novel by Brian Selznick, it is a tribute to early film pioneer George Méliès (played by Ben Kinsgley), a child’s adventure through a grown-up world of loss and […]
The 2006 TV season treated us to not one but two shows set backstage at a late-night comedy skit show. 30 Rock (2006-2013) was the funny one created by and starring Tina Fey, the former head writer of Saturday Night Live and host of the SNL “Weekend Update.” It was also the good one and […]
Lars and The Real Girl (2007) – Ryan Gosling is Lars, a shy, possibly borderline autistic child-man who mail-orders a fiancée and introduces the anatomically correct love doll as his living, breathing girlfriend. His brother (Paul Schneider) is speechless, his worried sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) understandably concerned, and the doting community plays along with an unflagging […]
