It is not hard to figure out where St. Vincent, the latest Bill Murray vehicle for comic grouchiness, is headed, but director Theodore Melfi makes you want to jump aboard and go along for the ride anyway. Murray isn’t exactly cuddly but, you know, every saint has some sinner-like traits. Murray, as Vincent, the next-door…
In case you didn’t find that “Interstellar” pre-chewed all of its own emotions for you enough, Wild, adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail,” is here to spoon feed you its own derivative “cold mush.” Wild follows Reese Witherspoon (“Mud”), as Cheryl Strayed, on an ambitious and…
Focus Features has released the first trailer for Fifty Shades of Grey, the film adaptation of E. L. James novel of sexual fantasy, and I can already hear the exasperated gasps. Why this particular book struck a chord with every woman alive, I’ve no idea but the film is certain to liven things up further….
Foxcatcher, based on the real-life events surrounding the relationship between billionaire John E. du Pont and Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz, is a plodding, tone-deaf snoozer. The cast tries very hard to make things work, sometimes too hard. Even worse, all that made the true story so weirdly compelling in the first place is lost in…
The Theory of Everything is a powerful, sincere film about one of the twentieth century’s greatest minds. That it never becomes mired in maudlin sentiment is astounding, given the standard succeeding-despite-the-odds story of its legendary subject, the esteemed physicist Stephen Hawking. The leads are more than adequate; they own the roles of Hawking and his…
[ Atmospheric, nimble, climactic; these are a few adjectives that appropriately describe Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis “Lou” Bloom, a creepy and impatient swindler turned stringer, is pleasantly disturbing. On the whole, the film from first-time director Dan Gilroy, is a potent thriller that paints a fluent picture of urban nightlife and the creeps that…
Maker of music pieces, mood pieces, moving pieces, Xavier Dolan is a one-man filmmaking tour de force. And yet he knows that in order to tap into the meaty emotional center of his stories, he must trust his actors and allow them to run away with their roles. Somehow, this adventurous approach, of being both…
