A deft touch turns into a heavy hand in Derek Cianfrance’s big, bruised follow-up to his quietly brilliant masterwork “Blue Valentine.” His latest is a conflicted drama about fathers and sons and fate and bad decisions and maybe even ice cream. The Place Beyond the Pines is an admirably ambitious project that clobbers its themes…
Some years ago I learned 1930s and ’40s era gangsters learned to talk “gangster” from the motion pictures. James Cagney probably had more to do with coining gangster lingo and slang than John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, and Al Capone combined. Gangster Squad gets the clothes right, does a decent job with 1949 era Los…
Just what we need — a good old fashioned gangster flick to heat up the cooling autumn days. Warner Bros’ Gangster Squad chronicles the battle between Los Angeles cops and the East Coast Mafia looking to establish a presence in the city. It’s set in the 1950s, and if the trailer is any indication, there’s…
Compare experienced political operatives with their interns and you’ll see more than wrinkled faces and less hair up top separates them. The interns still have fresh ideals and expectations of the candidates they choose to support; the experienced staffers know better. There was a point on a campaign in their past where their own ideals…
The Driver (Ryan Gosling) has no need for a name. He embodies his job description — a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver. Life outside of the 1973 Chevy Malibu, his vehicle of choice, is anonymous. That is, until Irene (Carey Mulligan), who lives down the hall, walks into the Driver’s life….
At fortysomething, Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living the American Dream. He has a nice house, a decent job, two loveable kids, and unlike most people, he’s married to his high school sweetheart, Emily (Julianne Moore). But that white picket fence is only as strong as those who built it, and in Weaver’s case, this…
Behind every presidential hopeful, there is a driven man (or woman) who, believing in the cause whole heartedly, is busting their ass in the trenches — doing everything and anything to win. More often than not, there is also a secret stashed away that, if reported on, would ruin the chances of winning the presidency….
