Just because you >can< render an animated classic into a live-action CGI extravaganza doesn’t mean that you should. Case in point, PINOCCHIO. It’s not an awful film but bringing the animated characters into the real world doesn’t add anything to the story of a little wooden puppet who dreams of being a real boy. Rather,… Read More »
ELVIS
It’s the moment when Elvis (Austin Butler) first asserts his independence from the tentacled hold that his manager, Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) has, and, alas, will always have on him. Elvis at this point in his nascent career has been labeled a threat to the American way of life in the conformist 1950s onto… Read More »
NEWS OF THE WORLD
NEWS OF THE WORLD is a somber and sober tale of post-Civil War Texas with few surprises as it wends its way through the mythos of the Old West, unfolding as it does as a metaphor. Or is it an allegory? Perhaps a microcosm of the world’s ills, both then and now? All those elements… Read More »
THE CIRCLE
It is possible that those years of my wayward youth spent toiling in the Valley of Silicon have colored my view of THE CIRCLE. The, at least to me, mundane observations about that particular corporate culture fall with a resounding thud as we see the way work and personal life intermingle, with everything one could… Read More »
SULLY
As lean and laconic as its director, Clint Eastwood’s SULLY is a gripping but (mostly) unsentimental retelling of how Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger safely landed his stricken American Airlines plane in the Hudson River after suffering a bird strike on January 15, 2009. To the public, and the lives of the passengers he saved, he was… Read More »
A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING
Tom Hanks once again reminds us that he is the quintessential American Everyman with a deeply affecting turn as the symbol of modern American enterprise in A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING, based on the novel of the same name by Dave Eggers, and adapted by Tom Tykwer. Think of it as an updated version of… Read More »
BRIDGE OF SPIES
Clad, metaphorically, in a shining armor of truth, and wielding an equally luminous sword of righteousness, Tom Hanks as attorney James Donovan is the embodiment of American virtue, right down to the meat loaf he has for dinner, the which is not touched until he has said grace with his wife and three kids. There was, no… Read More »
TOY STORY 3
Since his introduction by Pixar over a decade ago, Woody the toy cowboy (Tom Hanks) has faced dangers and adversaries of many varieties. In TOY STORY 1, it was Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) stealing the number one position in owner Andys heart, and that psychotic kid next door who did unfortunate things to the toys… Read More »
LARRY CROWNE
Somewhere in LARRY CROWNE, there is a darker, more robust film lurking. Fortunately, with director and co-writer Tom Hanks in the title role, rather than hopeless piffle, this lightweight bit of escapism almost takes on the grander trappings of an optimistic fable for our times. A slight one, to be sure, and certainly not one… Read More »
CLOUD ATLAS
CLOUD ATLAS is an ambitious film plagued with problems that garbles its overarching themes. Some of these problems stem from its makers attempting to adapt the six novellas of the original book into a film with a running time of only(?) three hours. Others are of a more puzzling nature, troublesome and unforgivable for being something… Read More »