Paul (Yvan Attal) is a portrait of dishevelment in the opening scene of Phillipe André’s interesting short, Delicate Gravity. Sitting in a Vietnamese restaurant, the pages of the book he’s translating splayed across the table, his hair unkempt, Paul tells us a lot before he even says a word. We’re introduced to the guy during…
Disney has unveiled the first trailer for Maleficent, their prequel of sorts to “Sleeping Beauty” that tells the tale of how the wicked queen came to be. In it, Angelina Jolie, as Maleficent, slinks around the periphery between light and dark while the lovely Aurora (Elle Fanning) frolics and plays with fairies and other woodland…
Though Blue is the Warmest Color, winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, contains graphic depictions of sex, it is not a voyeuristic exercise but a complex, deeply intense film that elevates one young woman’s personal struggle into a drama of universal relevance. Adapted by Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix from the…
A dream-like atmosphere pervades David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, a nostalgic tone poem that hints of Terrence Malick with its sweeping vistas and soft voice-overs. Though the title card that opens the film says, “This was in Texas,” there is no delineation of time or place, and it is left to the viewer to…
When it comes to films about relationships, whether they are platonic or romantic, we’re all going to have different takes on them. Naturally, how we view any film has a lot to do with our own experiences, but with such a personal topic, the influence of our feelings on the issues at hand are bound…
Sutter is brash. Sutter is funny. Sutter has charisma. Sutter comes from a nice home and has a part-time job. Sutter is popular. Oh, yes. Sutter also drinks too much. Based on a novel by Tim Tharp and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (“(500) Days of Summer“), James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now…
Many of William Shakespeare’s heroines are proud and witty women who are reluctant to be wooed; for example, Rosaline of Love’s Labor’s Lost, and Rosalind of As You Like It. One of the most high-spirited characters in Shakespeare is Beatrice, the niece of Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing, a sharp-tongued woman who more than…
