Edward Norton is an odd duck. When he burst onto the scene with 1996’s “Primal Fear,” he matched beats with more seasoned stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Francis McDormand, and earned an Oscar nomination for his trouble. Subsequent roles in “American History X,” “Fight Club” and “25th Hour” led to him being hailed as…
Steven Soderbergh’s reputation as an iconic filmmaker who has retired and unretired multiple times seems contradictory when watching one of his new movies, not merely because the movie exists, but also because his work feels like the product of someone who is always moving, always trying, always doing. Much of his focus in the past…
In the midst of the devastation that was Hurricane Sandy back in 2012, New Jersey’s notorious play land, Atlantic City, was stripped to a bleak and torn terrain. First-time director Emanuele Della Valle uses this as a backdrop for his crime-drama film debut, Wetlands. The grey wasteland welcomes a once rogue Philadelphia cop, Babel (Adewale…
In Israeli-American director Joseph Cedar’s masterful film, Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, a ridiculously expensive pair of shoes given as a gift leads to a friendship between rising Israeli politician Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi, “Encirclements”) and Norman Oppenheimer (Richard Gere, “Time Out of Mind”), an American businessman, consultant…
Through the years cinema has bent over backwards to portray the good guys with badges as the symbolic warriors of law and order. On some occasions there were dedicated and determined officers that stopped at nothing to obtain their brand of justice even if it meant working outside of the boundaries of the law such…
Based on a popular graphic novel by Marasume Shirow and directed by Rupert Sanders (“Snow White and the Huntsman”), Ghost in the Shell is a visually stunning experience with a fine core performance by Scarlett Johansson (“Captain America: Civil War”), but it borrows so much of other, mostly better science fiction films and TV series,…
After experiencing a tragedy, a grieving young couple escapes to the Bahamas in an attempt to mend their emotional scars. Nadine (Dree Hemingway, “While We’re Young”) retreats to alcoholism to cope, while her husband Lewis (Lakeith Stanfield, “Get Out”) endlessly struggles to connect with her again. Unknowingly, the two find themselves caught in the middle…
