Adapting something as sprawling, highly detailed, strange, and twisty as Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer Prize winning 2014 novel The Goldfinch for the big screen might’ve been an impossible task for anyone to attempt, but director John Crowley and screenwriter Peter Straughan certainly give their all with this uneven, sometimes bizarre, but never boring literary epic.
As visually dazzling and inspired as it is refreshingly offbeat and silly, Aquaman effortlessly entertains if you’re able to get on board with its particular blend of genteel corniness and old school blockbuster swagger.
Boy Erased, the second directorial effort from actor and writer Joel Edgerton, takes an uncomfortable and wholly moving look at a young man, full of doubt, who’s sent to an unspeakably awful place to “recover.”
How to Talk to Girls at Parties, the latest film from director John Cameron Mitchell that’s based on a story by popular author Neil Gaman, feels every bit like a film that wasn’t ready to go into production, but they went ahead with it anyway. There’s a lot to like, and many reasons why this has bypassed cinemas and been sent straight-to-VOD.
There’s a new kid in town making a name for himself on the big screen. Barry Keoghan is a force to be reckoned with and someone we’re going to be seeing a lot of for many years to come.
The Beguiled, the latest film from writer-director Sofia Coppola, might take place in Civil War era Virginia, but it’s a story (one twice told before) that could take place in present day with only minor cultural tweaks. Pivoting between a genteel drama and a potent two-way standoff thriller, The Beguiled effortlessly lives in two worlds at once: past and present and light and dark. It’s further proof that Coppola’s best (and often most underrated) works are the ones where she’s able to tap into primal feelings of rage, fear and privilege colliding with one another.
Two days of the Toronto International Film Festival are already in the bag, and it feels like it has just flown by in a strange caffeine-fueled haze. I’ve been preparing for TIFF for the last month, but between becoming a dad at the end of July, and just generally having too much to do, I never did end up feeling all that prepared for the film festival this year, but it has been exciting all the same as it whizzed by my head.
The 85th Academy Awards, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, took over the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood Sunday, February 24, with the usual huge lineup of celebrities and filmmaking superpowers.
Awards season is well under way as the 69th Golden Globe Awards welcomed Hollywood’s top hotshots and A-listers to join together in some collective fist pumping to celebrate the last year in film and television.
Debuting on DVD and Blu-ray this week: the Coen brothers’ True Grit, with Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld; the silly romantic comedy Just Go With It, starring Adam Sandler; the thriller Sanctum, by director Alister Grierson; plus a look at Blue Crush 2 and the final season of Stargate Universe.
