The rom-com as a genre has suffered much in the last decade or so due to a surfeit of agonizingly insipid cinematic attempts. So when one comes along that reminds us what a good one is like, it is a cause for celebration. And so it is with CRAZY RICH ASIANS, based on Kevin Kwan’s… Read More »
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD
The rich, as the oft-quoted saw goes, are different. That is the central premise of ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD, a cautionary tale of money and family. The moving force, though only a supporting player in the proceedings, J. Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer), who at one point reminisces about a book he wrote entitled… Read More »
BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!
Guy Maddin’s BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! is such a purely, viscerally visual experience that, like trying to describe a dream, much is lost when trying to put the language of the subconscious into words. And that is what Maddin is working with here. Boasting no spoken dialogue, eccentric black-and-white exposures, he bills this as a… Read More »
CYRUS
A man, a woman, her son. It’s a situation of jealous hostility explored many times, but never more honestly, more painfully, or with bigger laughs than in Jay and Mark Duplass CYRUS. Made with an improvisational style that perfectly evokes the awkward immediacy of three people working through a new relationship that changes all their… Read More »
Jay Duplass Creates CYRUS
Filmmaker Jay Duplass channeled the close relationship he shares with brother, co-writer and co-director, Mark, into the sweet but insular relationship the 21-year-old title character of their film CYRUS shares with his mother. As part of the Mumblecore movement, their particular brand of indy filmmaking, their goal is to capture the an emotional immediacy and… Read More »
INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS Courtesy of Brenda Blethyn and Cherie Nowlan
The battle of the sexes takes a decidedly different turn in INTRODUCING THE DWIGHTS, and so when I talked with its star, Brenda Blethyn, and its director, Cherie Nowlan on June 25, 2007, how men and women react to the film was top of my list of things to ask them. Along the way, Blethyn bragged… Read More »