Tag Archive | Stephen Frears
Florence Foster Jenkins
Nominated for Best Actress (Meryl Streep) at the 89th Annual Academy Awards Nominated for Best Costume Design at the 89th Annual Academy Awards To borrow from a piece I once did on Tom Cruise: I love Meryl Streep. I hate Meryl Streep. Oh, this has absolutely nothing to do with national politics, or awards show speeches. […]
Philomena
“Philomena” lost me as soon as Judi Dench uttered the words “bi-curious” and “beard”. It’s a sly cheat by the screenwriter(one of whom is the film’s co-star, Steve Coogan)following a tricky deception. Two-thirds of the film is spent setting Philomena(Ms. Dench, of course)as a lovable, yet naive rube—and then the rug is pulled out from […]
Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight on HBO
The smartest move director Stephen Frears makes, with this earnest HBO film, is letting Muhammad Ali be the star of it. Oh, the Parkinson’s afflicted, now septuagenarian, former 3-time heavyweight boxing king doesn’t actually perform in the finished product. But neither is there an actor enlisted to portray the great champion. However, this depiction of […]
Reviewed by Mark Leonard 