Mike Leigh’s film Mr. Turner centers on the last twenty-five years of the life of the acclaimed 19th century English landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner. Though the film, with the strong assistance of cinematographer Dick Pope, succeeds in capturing the look and feel of the time as well as the essence of Turner’s beautiful landscapes and…
American Sniper is more intent on creating a hero out of Chris Kyle, reportedly the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history, than it is on being an unbiased character study; to be fair, the film was based on Kyle’s eponymous memoir, which wasn’t the most objective of the Iraq War either. So obviously it…
“Sometimes, it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one imagines” Mathematician and cryptographer Alan Turing experiences both triumph and tragedy in Norwegian director Morton Tydlum’s The Imitation Game, the true story of a man whose help in breaking the Nazi’s Enigma Code during World War II may…
The Girl on the Roof, Skeet Ulrich’s directorial debut, is perhaps better when viewed as such than as a short film overall. Telling the dark story of a young girl, Lila (Naiia Ulrich), who receives only negative attention from bullies at school and hardly any attention from her family at home, which consists of a…
It’s been twelve years since Abby (Angela DiMarco) last saw her sister, Rebecca (Kate Alden), and she’s very nervous about spending time with her again. Accompanied by Abby’s fiancé Calvin (David S. Hogan), they travel to the family cabin in the woods to spread their mother’s ashes in the lake she loved. The weekend is…
Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings may be light on characterization and depth, but it is abundant in atmosphere and scene-to-scene, gripping drama. It’s biblical by nature, and although it does not delve as far as some would like into the lives of Moses or Ramses II, it is well-intentioned, thought-provoking and flashy. The CGI,…
Thirteen years after Peter Jackson first introduced us to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, we find ourselves at the conclusion of the prequel Hobbit trilogy, and thus our last foray into Middle Earth. As a result, cinemas are bound to be packed with fans both fierce and casual, all reluctantly saying farewell…
