‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ says you’re just like dad, whether you like it or not
In wider release this week is The Place Beyond the Pines, kind of a father and son tale told over the span of 15 years with multiple subjects involved. While a little meandering and slow-paced, the movie nonetheless holds up as a well-acted and effective drama. Hope you don’t hate your dad if you go see it, because the [...]
Harvey Weinstein’s odious Oscar push
I was rooting for Silver Linings Playbook for Best Picture the other night as suspected I might when I reviewed it last year. It’s probably not quite typical Best Picture quality, but then I would argue neither is Argo. I have to tell you though, when I learned about producer Harvey Weinstein’s efforts to get [...]
‘Silver Linings Playbook’ is comedy gold
Count me amongst those that wouldn’t mind seeing Silver Linings Playbook sneak out a win for Best Picture at the Oscars next year. It’s that enjoyable a movie. It’s one of those rare ones where the dialogue is so good, at least in the first half, that you hang on virtually every word. It’s comic gold, [...]
Oscar season is upon us
Goldderby.com is a site that predicts and lets you predict the top showbiz awards. Today they have 18 industry experts predicting their top choices for Best Picture at next February’s Oscars. Six people selected Lincoln as their prediction for Best Picture, the Steven Spielberg directed story of Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War [...]
‘The Words’ are best left unsaid, and the movie unseen
Agonizingly slow and swimming in its own self-importance, I could have sworn The Words was a poor adaptation from some short story or novel, but its not. An original story by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, the movie debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and represents the two writers’ first efforts as directors. Their lack of directing experience [...]