Archive | October 2014
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Snowpiercer
A non-stop, high-speed train, hurtling around planet Earth, sheltering hordes of survivors from a 21st century ice age? The mouth waters. Chris “Captain America” Evans, as the disheveled leader of a back-of-the-train revolution, that aims to overtake the front-of-the-train elite who keep the caboose population in a state of “soylent-brown”- gobbling squalor? Yeah, I’m stoked. […]
Flashback: on 1931’s Frankenstein & 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein
C’mon, be honest…when was the last time you watched them? College film class? Late night television as a kid? Never?! Everyone recognizes the iconic images, but I often wonder how many have exposure that’s limited to the 1974 Mel Brooks parody movie “Young Frankenstein”. But these are the ones that you have to experience, so may […]
The Lynch Ledger-Entry Eight: The Straight Story (1999)
David Lynch threw quite a few people for a loop fifteen years ago, with his non-fiction adaptation “The Straight Story”. I count myself amongst that company. Mr. Lynch was coming off a roughly decade-and-a-half run that ushered in “Blue Velvet”, “Wild at Heart”, “Lost Highway”, the “Twin Peaks” television series, and its motion picture prequel […]
“Avengers: Age of Ultron” trailer arrives!
It’s here…and it’s awesome. Did you expect anything less? Just six months out, from the official release of the biggest movie blockbuster of 2015, and we now have the very first “Avengers: Age of Ultron” trailer. It’ll gross over a billion dollars if it makes a dime…even if it stinks. Which is highly unlikely with […]
Love Is Strange
A close friend of mine recently Facebook posted that “Love Is Strange” is a “lovely film”, and he’s absolutely correct. It’s unhurried and incisive, and features some pretty terrific performances from big stars you know, as well as from some “unknowns” that you probably don’t. The main storyline focuses on a gay couple in New […]
Mike Leigh is back with “Mr. Turner”!
One of our finest film directors is returning with a new work later this year, and it would be a real shame if you’ve never heard of him. There has been a steady influx of first-time readers and followers of this blog most recently, thanks partly to social media(Facebook and Twitter, why did I avoid […]
Venus in Fur
This is the year’s most thrilling surprise. At 80(upon the film’s release), my thinking was that Roman Polanski may have shot his final bolt. Hit-or-miss for a number of years, following 2002’s Oscar-soaked, “The Pianist”, it was starting to seem that Polanski would never touch the edge of greatness again. 2010’s “The Ghost Writer” was […]
Reviewed by Mark Leonard 