With its gritty depiction of rundown small town, USA and characters desperate to find their way, Out of the Furnace looks a lot like a film we’d come across before in 1978’s “The Deer Hunter.” But while I don’t suspect Scott Cooper’s film will win any Oscars as Michael Cimino’s did, his all-star cast also…
In a world of ice, Disney finds great warmth. It’s the sort of cutesy irony that sounds like it should be coated in sugar, but with Frozen, Disney takes the sweet concept and transforms it into their most poignant and powerful picture in over a decade. Or nearly even two decades if you consider that…
When my children were young, we went to the killer whale (orca) shows at the Vancouver Aquarium. It was fun to see the 8,000+ pound whales doing tricks for the trainer while the audience was being splashed. We gave little thought, however, to how the whales felt about it. Today, millions who attend SeaWorld shows…
Even bearing in mind that this film was always going to be fighting the uphill battle of the “middle film” curse, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug still didn’t quite live up to expectations. Perhaps it’s because “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” — Peter Jackson’s last “middle film”, from The Lord of…
Cold and distant meets warm and fuzzy in the little Brit pic Philomena and while the odd coupling clearly adheres to the philosophy that opposites attract, the movie is really all about sentimentality with just a side of snark. That snark comes courtesy of recently fired journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan, also the script’s co-writer…
When it comes to the narrative twist, there’s the element of surprise and the element of effectiveness. The best and most memorable twists entwine the two, so we’re both caught off guard and emotionally engaged enough to care. With their short Point Mugu, director Francis Dreis and co-writers Amelia Jackson-Gray and Erin Ross get halfway…
Though Upstream Color is supported by many other professionals in the field of visual and audio effects, it is mainly the product of one man, Shane Carruth, who is the director, producer, writer, cinematographer, composer, and co-star. It is no secret Carruth’s films play with our minds but, though his latest film is enigmatic and…
