In fiction as in life the secret lies in believing too much while knowing too little. This lack of self-awareness, which often translates in a very low awareness of one’s own environment, can be a blessing in such difficult times as the ones we live in. Naiveté is the closest we can get to innocence,…
“What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined . . . to strengthen each other . . . to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories” — George Eliot Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival,…
Set in fictional Wessex County in south-west England in the 1870s, Thomas Vinterberg’s (“The Hunt”) adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd chronicles the ups and downs of Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan, “Inside Llewyn Davis”), a smart, headstrong woman who is fiercely proud of her independence when it comes to choosing suitors….
Despite the fact that all the characters’ stories were nicely tied up in bow by the end of “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Shakespeare in Love” director John Madden has decided to return to the helm to treat viewers to the continuing adventures of the residents in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In this…
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…
“For what else is the life of man but a kind of play in which men in various costumes perform until the director motions them offstage?” – Erasmus Once you add up the upcoming films from Marvel and DC studios, there are twenty-two “superhero” films being planned over the course of the next four years….
In The Drop, Tom Hardy offers a subdued performance as a bartender in a two-bit dive that gets held up by crooks who apparently don’t realize that they’re stealing mob money. The subsequent investigation slowly stirs up old neighborhood stories and tragic secrets. Hardy’s Bob Saginowski is an area lifer; he and his cousin Marv…
