By the 1950s, Hollywood’s Golden Age was waning, its studio system crumbling in favor of “New Wave” films and younger visionaries. The wholesome names of the 1920s and ’30s were now the distant past, though their legacies would be cemented among Hollywood’s greatest. Nevertheless, pressing on amid this sweeping change were two iconic personalities of…
Cinema has long been home to inspirational “true story” interpretations, operating as a vessel through which filmmakers can translate fact into fiction. There’s an audience for it, so the biopic genre and its various filtered offshoots continue to be a mainstay of mainstream movies. There’s a seemingly endless collection of personalities and adventures to choose…
Based “mostly” on a true story (in other words, fictional), Stephen Frears’ (“Florence Foster Jenkins”) Victoria and Abdul is an ode to the warmth of simple friendship and the wonders of British colonialism. Based on the book by Shrabani Basu with a screenplay by Lee Hall (“War Horse”), it is an engaging film about the…
“. . . You can’t handcuff the wind, If you try you’re gonna fail It’s like trying to put thunder in jail . . .” So sings Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barratt, “ABCs of Death 2”) who experienced a moment of fame in the late eighties, playing Bruce P. Mindhorn, “the best plain-clothes detective the Isle…
There’s been a renewed interest in the Church of Scientology and that’s probably because of the commercial success of HBO’s “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief” and A&E’s “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” television series (there are a few other documentaries on the topic, but they mostly regurgitate the same talking points)….
Florence Foster Jenkins singing voice was flat and off-key, yet her generosity to others, friendship with music greats such as Arturo Toscanini, and love of music brought happiness to many during the dark days of World War II. Labeled by some intemperate critics as “the worst singer in the world,” she is given something of…
Historical and even scientific truth can be merely the consensus agreed upon by those who presently have the power and influence to determine public opinion, or it can be based on evidence that has been tested in the laboratory, in debate, or in a court of law. Written by David Hare and based on the…
