We know, in that achingly familiar phrase, that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” but we sometimes forget that our memories will remain only in our experience and cannot be recreated in time. It is a hard lesson to be learned and one that Eilis Lacey (pronounced Ailish) (Saoirse Ronan, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”), a…
A poignant love story, Arnaud Desplechin’s (“Jimmy P.”) My Golden Days (Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse) is filled with warmth and humor and delivered with a lively and playful touch in the Desplechin style: The use of voice-overs, split screens, the iris-effect, and characters looking and speaking directly into the camera. Challenging us with numerous…
Babbling in a bubble. Like babbling in a bubble. No wise words. No intelligible ideas. Only an interminable babble of three carton-cut characters living in the little bubble that this film provides. Watching Wasp is like listening to an irrelevant insect buzzing around without it becoming anything but a mild nuisance in the background. The…
A light-hearted score by Jed Kurzel (“The Snowtown Murders”) punctuates Slow West, first-time director John Maclean’s 84-minute deconstruction of the myth of the frontier. Winner of the grand jury prize in the international dramatic competition at Sundance, the U.K.-New Zealand co-production is a slow burn that is awash in contradictions. Starring Michael Fassbender (“12 Years…
If among our current generation of Hollywood actresses there were any one who embodied the idea of “classic beauty,” it would be Blake Lively. She is undeniably radiant, carrying a grace and poise that few others can master, and in this sense is perfectly cast as Adaline Bowman: A beautiful young woman who ceases to…
Trainwreck. Rarely has there been a more appropriately named film than this one, except like an actual train wreck, I COULD look away from this picture, I just wish I had more often. There are few things even remotely redeemable — or humorous — about this picture, written by Amy Schumer (also the star of…
Nicholas Sparks, who has probably put more words to paper than William Shakespeare (although none as memorable) has graced us with his yearly obligatory salute to misogyny, perfect abs and beautiful white people with problems we WISH we could have in his latest tearjerker, The Longest Ride. Sparks, the creator of such books/films as “The…
