9 years ago
Nicole Kidman 10
The “Secret In Their Eyes” Is That This Movie Is Ludicrous
Secret In Their Eyes is an American remake of the Oscar-winning Argentinian thriller The Secret in Their Eyes. Writer-director Billy Ray’s version drops the word “the” from its title but retains much of its predecessor’s plot. The film’s politics also get an A...
Read more →
You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Noah Baumbach’s Trilogy of Disappointment
Gracing the cover of the most recent issue of Film Comment are Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke, staring into one another’s eyes, just under the headline, “Mistress America: I’ll Be Your Mirror.” The photograph, taken from a scene in which the trajectory of both ch...
Read more →
“Strangerland”
There’s a lot of intrigue and very little of interest in director Kim Farrant’s debut feature. It’s a movie of elisions and withholding, parceling out information at a snail’s pace while simmering in an overheated, eroticized atmosphere that promises far more ...
Read more →
A Tale of Two Batmans: “Forever” and “Begins”
Batman doesn’t exist. Objectively, Joel Schumacher’s neon camp-fests are no less defensible than the “what if he were a real guy?” approach director Christopher Nolan and co-screenwriter David Goyer introduced 10 years ago with Batman Begins. Batman has been a...
Read more →
Opening Acts 1/21/2015
Every day, Opening Acts highlights the best pieces of writing on film, television, and literature published around the Internet. Please share if you like what you see.
For your reading enjoyment …
1. Is ScarJo In ‘Ghost in the Shell’ A Kick-Ass Cyborg Superh...
Read more →
“Before I Go to Sleep”
There’s a resigned manner in the way Before I Go to Sleep plays out. Running a trim 92 minutes and with a credited cast of just nine actors plus stunt people, it’s a small, rote mystery about a woman with amnesia, Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman), who sets out ...
Read more →
“I Call Them Dogs”: Lars von Trier Calls Out Rape Culture
Lars von Trier wants to hold us accountable. His films sear and contain a rawness that’s rare in cinema. He shows a small town community protecting people who abuse a fugitive, sexually and emotionally, and a religious culture that allows its elders to be disp...
Read more →
Cannes Days 1 & 2: A Botched Grace Kelly Resurrection, Mike Leigh Mesmerizes, and “Timbuktu”‘s Disastrous Consequences of Faith
Grace of Monaco
There was no shortage of glamour and star power on the Cannes 2014 opening red carpet. Tim Roth and Nicole Kidman, the stars of long-awaited Grace of Monaco, are indeed true professionals. Their perfectly fitted tuxes, blingy gowns and ste...
Read more →
Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth Together Again for “Before I Go To Sleep”
There's nothing like a good team. Astaire and Rogers. Redford and Newman. Hope and Crosby. Some of the most prolific film duos of all-time. Just where Kidman and Firth will land is anyone's guess, but they will team up again for Before I Go To Sleep.
Based ...
Read more →
“The Railway Man”: An Ambitious and Moving WWII Biopic
Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man is an Oscar movie out of season. Lost in the doldrums between Academy Award consideration and the cacophonous din of the summer blockbusters, it's a film abandoned, with enough tragedy, triumph, sweeping romance and factual...
Read more →
