Best Supporting Actor J. K. Simmons deserved to win and if he’d been nominated for Best Actor (he’s really a co-lead), he might have still won. Terrence Fletcher was the best performance of the year and will be one of the most talked about and analyzed performances for some time. Best Costume Design The Grand… Continue reading 87th Academy Awards post mortem
Month: February 2015
Gleaning miracles from the edges of the future
The Gleaners and I: Two Years Later (2002) Varda’s follow-up to her seminal film is too self-aggrandizing. Instead of revisiting the people or places she met in the first movie, she reads congratulatory postcards from viewers. This pretentious film almost cheapens the power of the original. Edge of Tomorrow (2014) When he questions the orders… Continue reading Gleaning miracles from the edges of the future
Ranking Stanley Kubrick
13) Killer’s Kiss (1955) One night, unlucky boxer Davey hears screams coming from the home of his attractive neighbor Gloria. Having long admired her from a distance, Davey convinces Gloria to run away from her abusive gangster boss, Vincent, but their escape is complicated when mobsters kill Davey’s manager and blame him for the crime.… Continue reading Ranking Stanley Kubrick
The stellar Mr. Arkadin crawls at night in Indochina
Interstellar (2014) In the not so distant future, a planet-wide blight has hurled humanity backwards into a semi-agrarian society. Widowed former NASA astronaut Joseph “Coop” Cooper runs a farm with his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy), son Tom, and father-in-law Donald (John Lithgow), but he still dreams of traveling to the stars. Murphy believes a ghost is manipulating… Continue reading The stellar Mr. Arkadin crawls at night in Indochina
Santa’s theory of the girl in a cage: A film by Bergman
La Cage aux Folles (1978) Renato owns a nightclub featuring his longtime lover, and accomplished drag performer, Albin. This creates complications when Laurent, Renato’s son from a previous relationship, brings his fiancée and her conservative parents home. After watching Robin Williams and Nathan Lane enthusiastically two-step their way through an energetic love affair alongside the perfectly cast Gene… Continue reading Santa’s theory of the girl in a cage: A film by Bergman