LEGEND is not the first biopic of the notorious Kray Brothers to hit the big screen. The identical twin brothers, who were both vicious gangsters and pop-culture celebrities in the 1950s and 60s, were portrayed by the Kemp brothers, Gary and Martin as Ronnie and Reggie respectively in 1990’s THE KRAYS, a film that spent… Read More »
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN begins by telling us that we have heard this story before. And we have. Sort of. The Frankenstein (James McAvoy) in question is the one that built the iconic monster out of spare human parts, but it’s Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), the man scientist’s assistant, who is our narrator, and it’s from his fresh,… Read More »
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — Part 2
THE HUNGER GAMES may be based on a wildly popular young adult series of novels, but the film adaptations have always tackled issues that are powerfully adult and presented as such. Set in an unspecified future, the class system has run so wild that the life and death of the proletariat class has become institutionalized… Read More »
TRUTH
James Vanderbilt’s TRUTH is a careful, disturbing dissection of the triumph of style over substance, flash over facts, insinuated itself, and then took over, television news. Based on the book Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power by Mary Mapes, it examines that moment in history when the eponymous truth… Read More »
ROOM
ROOM is a profound meditation on the human condition, a meditation as bittersweet as life itself, and as uplifting as a child’s innocence. Based on the novel by Emma Donoghue, it confronts the barbaric simplicity of captivity, by contrasting it with the confusing complexity of freedom. What should be easy is not. Happiness is elusive.… Read More »
James Vanderbilt Examines TRUTH
I did not expect James Vanderbilt to do his impression of Roland Emmerich for me. And I certainly didn’t expect it to be so dead on. Vanderbilt was talking to me on October 2, 2015, about his upcoming collaboration with Emmerich on the sequel to INDEPENDENCE DAY, the script for which Vanderbilt contributed, and I… Read More »
Cary Fukunaga and Abraham Attah Take On BEASTS OF NO NATION
I loved the rapport between writer/director Cary Fukunaga and his discovery, Abraham Attah. If there was ever a more impressive feature film debut than Attah’s in BEASTS OF NO NATION, I can’t remember it. This searing, heartbreaking adaptation of Uzodinma Iweala’s novel of the same name casts Attah as Agu, a normal, happy kid in… Read More »
Lee Daniels on PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
Lee Daniels talks about how he was able to bring his film, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE, to the screen without compromising his vision. From taking eight years to convince the author to let him transfer the story of Precious to the screen, to casting newcomer Gabourey Sibide in the title role,… Read More »
THE MARTIAN
THE MARTIAN asks some tough metaphysical questions as it answers some thorny scientific problems with nifty solutions. What’s worth living for? What’s worth dying for? And why should giving up never be an option? The premise is daunting. Mark Watney (Matt Damon), ace botanist and member of the Ares 3 exploratory expedition to Mars in… Read More »
Chiwetel Ejiofor Experiences 12 YEARS A SLAVE
12 YEARS A SLAVE is based on the shocking true story of Solomon Northup, a musician and free man of color with a wife and two children who lived in New York in the first half of the 19th century. He was sold into slavery, where he languished for over a decade, and, against all… Read More »
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