Category Archives: profiles and movie news

Gloom gathers over the movie “Foxcatcher.” The skies are perpetually grey and the only time we see don’t see red leaves tumbling to the ground is when they’re covered with snow. We know something fatal is coming, even if our … Continue reading →

There’s a hint of the Dust Bowl in Oscar-winner Hilary Swank’s face — a worn, rawboned quality straight out of a Walker Evans photograph. That makes her the perfect Mary Bee Cuddy, the sturdy not-quite-old-maid of Tommy Lee Jones’ film, … Continue reading →

  There’s something about motorcycles and motorcycle documentaries that brings out the kid in us all. The immediacy of the experience, the speed, the hair’s breadth away from danger — good films get across the intoxicating hobby and sport that … Continue reading →

November is when critics start to wrap up their screenings of the Top Ten List contenders, from “Instellar” and “Rosewater” and soon to open films with Oscar buzz, to “Foxcatcher” and tonight’s outing, “The Theory of Everything.” As Stephen Hawking … Continue reading →

Studio Ghibli’s “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” is an old fashioned Japanese folk tale beautifully rendered in old-fashioned hand-drawn animation. As anime projects go, Isao Takahata’s film is rougher-hewn, more hand-crafted looking than the Oscar winning work of Ghibli’s … Continue reading →

Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” is the most ambitious science fiction film — maybe ever, certainly since “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Long, filled with lengthy passages of exposition and explanations of science, it takes forever to get to a killer third act. … Continue reading →

It comes as no surprise that renowned British character actor Mark Strong is a pretty fair poker player. He’d have to be. His screen reputation is “unadulterated villainy” (Sandra Hall, Sydney Morning Herald). He was the bad guy in everything … Continue reading →

In his new film “Horns,” Daniel Radcliffe grows a pair. Playing a young man whose girlfriend was brutally murdered, that’s a magically realistic way of him becoming what his suburban Seattle neighbors think of him. “When they looked at me, … Continue reading →

“Missionary” is a lean, slickly sordid indie thriller about a Mormon missionary who goes bad. Really bad. Take away the not-so-saintly Latter Day Saint element and it would only occasionally rise to generic, a simple love triangle turned deadly. But … Continue reading →

Sometimes, the spark of a movie can come from a photograph. That’s the case with the new British comedy “Pride.” Screenwriter Stephen Beresford had already settled on telling the true story of gay activists reaching across a cultural divide to … Continue reading →