Hard-drinking rock star Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) ends up in a bar one night where he sees a waitress (Lady Gaga) sing an Edith Piaf song; bowled over, he talks to her and soon persuades her to go after a career in music. The fourth version of a story first conceived in the 1930s was … Continue reading A Star Is Born
INFILTRATE HATE. One year after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended with a murdered counter-protester, this film had its U.S. premiere. Taking place largely in the 1970s, Spike Lee’s most powerful movie in twenty years draws clear connections to present days, showing how the threat of racism simply won’t disappear. One of … Continue reading BlacKkKlansman: Joining Trump’s “Good People”
SOME MISSIONS ARE NOT A CHOICE. In my original review of the first movie in this franchise, I wrote that it’s underappreciated. I still consider it the best chapter of the series, but here comes number six and it isn’t far off. It’s not just that it has amazing action set pieces, but it knows … Continue reading Mission Impossible Fallout: Under Hunt’s Skin
LIVE IN THE MOMENT. 50-year-old linguistics professor Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) begins to notice disturbing little things about herself; after getting lost while out jogging, her doctor diagnoses her with early onset Alzheimer’s. A straightforward drama portraying a relatively young woman and her family’s attempts to get used to an aggressive, debilitating disease that can’t … Continue reading Still Alice
EVEN LEGENDS NEED A HERO. In 2002, a Nigerian-American doctor (Will Smith) in Pennsylvania begins looking into the deaths of several former NFL players and discovers a pattern of brain injuries. A drama that wants to be a new The Insider (1999), this time with the NFL, not tobacco companies, as villains. This reality-based film … Continue reading Concussion
CAN THE MOST FAMOUS FILM STAR IN THE WORLD FALL FOR JUST AN ORDINARY GUY? The most popular movie star in Hollywood (Julia Roberts) meets a London book-store owner (Hugh Grant) and they fall in love… but can a romance like that work out? Writer Richard Curtis reunited with his Four Weddings and a Funeral … Continue reading Notting Hill
SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO SAY GOODBYE BEFORE YOU CAN SAY HELLO. Military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) goes to Hawaii to take part in a traditional blessing that has unclear ties to the military; the disillusioned Gilcrest gets the wide-eyed Allison Ng (Emma Stone) as his Air Force liaison… After some controversy, both Cameron Crowe … Continue reading Aloha
DESPERATE TIMES. DESPERATE MEASURES. As the IMF is about to be shut down by the government, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes on the lam from the CIA and tries to prove the existence of a vast criminal network. The fifth chapter in the franchise reunites Cruise with his Jack Reacher director; opening with a knockout … Continue reading Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
After losing everything and suffering a mental breakdown when her wealthy husband (Alec Baldwin) is sent to jail on fraud charges, Jasmine Francis (Cate Blanchett) goes to stay with her sister (Sally Hawkins) in San Francisco. When Woody Allen takes on the financial crisis, he naturally sets the story in a world he knows … Continue reading Blue Jasmine
NOTHIN’ BUT A GOOD TIME. In 1987, small-town girl Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) arrives in Los Angeles and is hired as a waitress at a classic rock club that’s been targeted by the Mayor and his crazy-conservative wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones)… This adaptation of the jukebox musical was a box-office flop in spite of the fact … Continue reading Rock of Ages
On my visits to 30 Rockefeller Plaza and the GE Building, I half expected to see Kenneth the page step out of one of the elevators, eager to reveal the showbiz secrets of this classic home to NBC. The TV network may have hit hard times lately, but still benefits from a PR machine that … Continue reading 30 Rock: Making NBC Look Good
Woody Allen followed up his successful Midnight in Paris (2011) with another light-hearted excursion to a fabled, romantic city in Europe. Once again magical realism does its best to sell Rome as an irresistible place of history and culture where anything could happen. Among others, we meet an American retiree (Allen) who discovers an opera … Continue reading To Rome With Love
INVISIBLE. SILENT. STOLEN. In 1988, Die Hard had been such a tremendous hit that a sequel was inevitable. The film’s director, John McTiernan, was obviously considered for it. In the end, he chose to do something else. Adapting Tom Clancy’s “The Hunt for Red October” may seem like a natural follow-up, and it certainly is a thriller, … Continue reading Hunt for Red October: Run Silent, Run Deep
