In a post-Tumblr and currently-virus filled world, it can be easy to fall into a fantasy. Perhaps your’s involves vintage clothes, scenic deserts, and two fandom-related hotties battling for your affection. If it does, then new indie flick Endings, Beginnings is that personal overly-dramatic fan fiction come true. Except for this time, Shailene Woodley is…
The resiliency of the human spirit is pummeled by a squall of sentimentality in Baltasar Kormákur’s based-on-a-true-story survival drama Adrift, which long vacillates between prettily photographed seafaring and soggy backstory. The movie opens thrillingly in the chaotic aftermath of a storm that has left a luxurious sailboat in ruins and protagonist Tami (Shailene Woodley, “Allegiant”)…
Whether one thinks Edward Snowden is a patriot or a traitor for revealing CIA and NSA (National Security Agency) secrets will probably not depend on this movie, Snowden, as those who believe one way or the other will still hold those opinions after this 2-hour, 15-minute presentation. Still, director Oliver Stone (“Savages,” but better known…
Every now and then, Hollywood suffers from fatigue — the hot new thing that catches everyone’s attention and is insanely popular gets reproduced over and over and over until it’s everywhere, and everyone loves it even more . . . until they don’t. Then, there are the last few gasps of a trend until it…
You know you’ve wondered what’s beyond the great wall surrounding the remains of Chicago since it was introduced in 2014’s “Divergent” and further explored in 2015’s sequel “Insurgent.” Well wonder no more as the first real glimpse into the wasteland has been delivered in Summit Entertainment’s Allegiant. It’s red. And barren. Kind of lackluster really….
As a recap to bring readers up to speed: As “Divergent” came to a close, Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley, “The Spectacular Now”) and her friends were embroiled in a violent battle as the once-balanced faction system came crashing down around them. Caught up in a simulation ordered by Erudite leader Jeanine Matthews (Kate Winslet, “Carnage”),…
The climax of “Divergent” that saw the young divergent Tris (Shailene Woodley) escape with her life after a face-off with the manipulative leader of the Erudites (Kate Winslet) may have been anti-climatic but that won’t keep a good YA series from marching on. Realizing there is more to her story in this post-apocalyptic Chicago, in…
