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
When her teenage granddaughter (Julia Garner) needs $630 for an abortion, Elle Reid (Lily Tomlin) takes her on a little road trip to try to raise cash. A low-budget comedy with very serious undertones that provides Tomlin with her first starring role in a movie since the late 1980s. She’s wonderful as the acerbic poet … Continue reading Grandma
THEY FIGURED HE WAS A LAZY TIME WASTING SLACKER. THEY WERE RIGHT. L.A. slacker Jeffrey Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) goes to see a millionaire who has the same name as him to get compensation after an unfortunate encounter with two thugs, but is drawn into a kidnapping case… The Coen Brothers’ attempt to have a little … Continue reading The Big Lebowski
After the arrest of a former Weather Underground activist (Susan Sarandon) who’d been a fugitive for the last 30 years, reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) turns his attention to a seemingly honest Albany lawyer (Robert Redford). The 1970s terror organization is portrayed in rather simple fashion as consisting of essentially decent people who made undeniable … Continue reading The Company You Keep
NOT THAT IT MATTERS, BUT MOST OF IT IS TRUE! In 1969, fledgling movie star Robert Redford bought land in Utah that had been used for skiing since 1944. There he created a year-round resort that he named Sundance, a place that would also become the home of the Sundance Film Festival, a January fixture … Continue reading Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid: Thick as Thieves
FRIENDS COME IN ALL SIZES. When a Kansas family moves to Orange County, California, their Great Dane Marmaduke makes friends – and enemies – at a dog park. When Hollywood makes a movie out of an old TV show, book or comic strip for kids, far too often the results look like this – an … Continue reading Marmaduke
AMERICA IS LIVING IN SPIN. Tobacco industry lobbyist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is faced with two challenges – coming up with a way to get modern consumers to spend more money on cigarettes, and getting to know his son (Cameron Bright) better. Ivan Reitman’s son Jason made his feature film debut with this impressive comedy, a … Continue reading Thank You for Smoking
WE’RE NOT IN MANHATTAN ANYMORE. Affluent New Yorkers Paul and Meryl Morgan (Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker) are considering divorce, but after witnessing a murder they have to hide together in rural Wyoming as part of a witness relocation program. The third movie Marc Lawrence made with Grant has a lazy fish-out-of-water story that no … Continue reading Did You Hear About the Morgans?
THE STORY OF A MAN READY TO MAKE A CONNECTION. Some people will see this film as too depressing to enjoy. Others will consider it a breezy comedy and not quite get what all the fuzz is about. Some will look at the film’s message and find comfort in the fact that they belong to … Continue reading Up in the Air: Shark on the Road
HIS CURSE WILL BECOME HIS POWER. In order to save his terminally ill father, teenage stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the Devil; years later Satan offers Johnny a new deal to release his soul. Another Marvel creature hits the silver screen, but with mediocre results. Nicolas Cage is not quite right as … Continue reading Ghost Rider
THERE ARE WORLDS BEYOND OUR OWN – THE COMPASS WILL SHOW THE WAY. Twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) lives at a college in Oxford; when her next of kin, an explorer (Daniel Craig), embarks on a new adventure, a mysterious woman (Nicole Kidman) arrives at the school… Anti-intellectual Catholics tried to convince people to … Continue reading The Golden Compass
A WOMAN LIKE MONA CAN DRIVE MEN TO EXTREMES. At the end of WWII, two cowboys (Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup) out west compete for the same married woman (Patricia Arquette) and tangle with a powerful landowner. One of the greatest things about director Stephen Frears is his versatility; who could have guessed that he would … Continue reading The Hi-Lo Country
SAME LAND. SAME GOD. DIFFERENT DREAMS. There’s no question that Ted Turner and Ronald Maxwell have been good for each other. Turner founded Turner Pictures and its first release was supposed to be a six-hour miniseries based on a novel about the 1863 battle of Gettysburg. Well, the miniseries turned out to be such an … Continue reading Gettysburg: Brother Against Brother
