“Brothers” boasts great dramatic prowess and a trio of talented actors in their prime. The only thing missing is originality. The family drama caused by a father leaving his wife and kids as he’s deployed to Afghanistan coupled with the terrors of post-traumatic stress disorder are – - as insensitive as it feels to say — nothing new, at least to the world of film. Read the rest of this entry »
Not often does an Oscar winner for leading actor or actress dominate the entire picture through and through. Everything in “Gandhi” gravitates around Ben Kingsley in the role of a lifetime, or quite simply: the role he was born to play. Mahatma Gandhi’s story is about the power of one influencing the power of millions. Richard Attenborough’s film aspires to spread that message in this fascinating three-hour biopic about the strength and willpower of the human spirit. Read the rest of this entry »
Often times a film lifts its star to new height, but every so often the film is the thing getting lifted by the star. Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning performance as raging alcoholic and chain- smoking 57-year-old country singer Bad Blake places the film “Crazy Heart” on his shoulders and creates something compelling out of another film about a music star fighting inner demons and finding some kind of inspiration to push through to the other side. Read the rest of this entry »
An indistinctive stew of genres best describes Peter Jackson and Co.’s attempt at adapting the Alice Sebold novel “The Lovely Bones.” Part murder mystery, part family drama and part Salvador Dali painting, the film suffers an epic identity crisis which it hopes to mask by drowning you in evocative symbolism. Read the rest of this entry »
25 years after directed the greatest courtroom drama ever made in “12 Angry Men,” acclaimed director Sidney Lumet returns with “The Verdict.” Starring Paul Newman in a performance best described as straight from the core, the film flips the idea of justice on its head and reveals the enduring human spirit that lies within the tireless pursuit of it. Read the rest of this entry »
Queens are not just characters is period romances. Or fantasy stories. “The Queen” is a fascinating look at a monarch of not only historical fact, but also of a modern world. Played with grace and poise by the great Helen Mirren, Queen Elizabeth II becomes a specimen for our the moviegoer’s microscope rather than remaining that elusive royal figure locked up in Buckingham Palace. Read the rest of this entry »
Squarely on the shoulders of Al Pacino rests “Scent of a Woman,” a film of unlikely friendship and moral education spanning an epic 187 minutes. It is film built on memorable quotes and moments from Oscar-winning “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” adapter Bo Goldman as well as one unforgettable performance. Read the rest of this entry »
It doesn’t seem like a stretch to suggest that America might now be ready to embrace films in the style of India’s Bollywood films. While “Slumdog Millionaire” is far from a Bollywood tragic love story filled with singing and dancing, the way director Danny Boyle will rivet audiences with his film that is authentic to Indian culture while using a distinctly Western style of filmmaking might be enough proof that there is a profit to be made here. Read the rest of this entry »
Boxing, despite the sport’s decline in popularity since the ’80s, has managed to make for some of the best films. Starting with “Rocky” and then films such as “Raging Bull,” boxing has is one of those things that seems to best represent life’s journey and its struggles. There might not be a stronger visual metaphor than the glory and physical danger of someone with a goal laying it all on the line in the ring. “Million Dollar Baby” is the latest film to exploit this genre, and armed with great talents it manages to do so with a fresh point of view. Read the rest of this entry »
With the Oscars now less than 30 days away, I’m dedicating a lot of my archive reviews to some of the big winners. Here’s a film I watched recently, 1981 (1980 calendar year) Best Picture winner Ordinary People.
The way “Ordinary People” depicts the family is tough to swallow. Is the Jarrett family really ordinary? They suffered a horrible loss when their eldest son died in a boating accident and their youngest has recently come home after four months in the hospital because he tried to kill himself. These are not “ordinary” circumstances per say, but these are how once-ordinary people would handle such tragedy — how any of us who can identify with feeling ordinary would handle such tragedy. That’s the beauty of Alvin Sargent’s script, Robert Redford’s sensitive yet powerful direction and humbling performances from a terrific cast. Read the rest of this entry »
Side Note: Check out the next Julie Powell of Chicago cuisine, my friend Stephanie, and her blog “Stephanie Eats Chicago.” She was featured on WGN Radio this morning, plus if you click you might find pictures of puppies amidst her food-pegs.
“Julie & Julia” is not about food so much as it is about setting goals and creating opportunities for personal achievement. In this way, famous television chef Julia Child (Meryl Streep) and foodie blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams) have more in common than a passion for cooking. Acclaimed romantic comedy filmmaker Nora Ephron juxtaposes both womens’ stories to illustrate this in her film and though it’s a conclusion that doesn’t require two long hours to cook, the life-like ups and downs and feel good moments of “Julie & Julia” make it an affecting and personable film. Read the rest of this entry »
If one were taking a course on how to appropriately adapt a novel for the big screen, “Atonement’ would certainly need to be among the required materials. Though I personally have never read McEwan’s novel, the attention to detail that Joe Wright and his team bring to telling this story visually is superb. Read the rest of this entry »
“Changeling” reminds me a lot of 1997 thriller “L.A Confidential” in that it deals with police corruption and P.Ds’ frightening level of power. The problem with that is “Changeling” takes place about 25 years earlier — same police department, same problems, different era. It’s unfortunate how incompetent our criminal justice system was and in many ways still is and that’s what makes “Changeling” such a difficult film to stomach. It invokes rage, sadness, disgust and sympathy — and when you’ve had enough it keeps going. But it’s a beautifully realized period piece and a quality film from all aspects. Read the rest of this entry »
There aren’t many overcoming-the-odds stories quite like that of Christy Brown. Born with cerebral palsy in 1930s Dublin, his parents thought his handicap was mental as well as physical. Though eventually properly diagnosed, Brown, in a lower working-class family with nearly 20 children, had to push himself just to be appreciated by his family. Through the use of his only fully-functioning limb, his left leg, he taught himself to write and paint, both skills he developed expertly. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes a good story is all a film needs to be successful. Khaled Hosseini’s novel is one of those stories and with a more-than-competent director in charge, “The Kite Runner” was set to fly as a film. Maybe not as high as one might expect, but there’s nothing but quality storytelling being done here.
“The Kite Runner” is the touching story of an Afghan-American man named Amir (Khalid Abdalla) who reflects on a childhood friendship with a boy named Hassan, who was the son of his father’s servant. Years later in America (having fled Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded in the ’70s), Amir is a successful novelist but one of his father’s old friends calls him and begs him to return. He agrees and once there, learns something new about his old friend Hassan, the boy he childishly tried to distance himself from out of fear. Read the rest of this entry »
