The core of any filmmaker’s soul is to commit and explore the realm of a targeted subject matter regardless of said filmmaker’s familiarity with the material at hand. Well, Irish filmmaker Graham Jones (“How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate”) does not disappoint with his latest go-around regarding adventurous youth and the creative spirit in…
For a British voter and cinemagoer, it is a singular experience to see a film about Winston Churchill in the aftermath of a general election. The film is especially distinctive in 2017, as the British government displays all manner of contradictions and at times inadequacies, whereas Churchill, both the film and the legend of the…
Looks like the summer of 2017 is going to be another mixed bag of movies. For every well-received, attention-getting spectacle such as “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” or “Wonder Woman” we are gifted something rather flimsy and forgettable such as co-writer/director Johannes Roberts’ generic “divas in deep water dilemma” thriller 47 Meters Down. Contrived…
There are good musical biopics (“Love and Mercy,” “Walk the Line,” “La Bamba,” “Straight Outta Compton”) and there are bad ones (“Jolson Sings Again,” “The Doors,” “Great Balls of Fire!,” “Notorious”), and there are solid, but mediocre presentations like the latest, All Eyez On Me. Directed by Benny Boom (“Next Day Air”), All Eyez On…
Indeed director Stella Meghie’s (“Jean of the Joneses”) teary-eyed tale of pain and young love in the debilitating drama Everything, Everything may be a well-meaning, symbolic serving of the “fragile-heart-yet-winning-spirit” in the eyes of the targeted impressionable teenyboppers harboring such oscillating emotions. However, for discerning others this manufactured, saccharine-coated, junior-sized Lifetime Movie made for the…
My Cousin Rachel is a smart and evocative exercise in wrongfooting. Right from the beginning — or possibly the end — Roger Michell’s adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel expresses doubt and ambiguity, as narrator/protagonist Philip (Sam Claflin, “Me Before You”) asks “Was she? Wasn’t she?” By the end of the film, any answered questions…
Movies have been telling stories about dogs in the military since Rin Tin Tin starred in silent films like “A Dog of the Regiment” way back in the 1920s. Those were made-up stories that turned “Rinny” into one of Hollywood’s biggest money-makers of the pre-sound era (supposedly even getting him the most votes for Best…
