Inspired by true events? For all the truth the opening title card contains, it might just as well have read, “Insipid by All Accounts.” Wasn’t it John Ford who said, “When the legend becomes fact, print any excuse imaginable to reunite Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne in the hope of …
The story of Gerda, a struggling portrait painter (Alicia Vikander) who loses a husband but gains a compelling subject — there’s nothing like a broken heart for inspiration! Of course, the losing and gaining are all of a piece, born from her man Einar’s (Eddie Redmayne) conclusion that while nature …
Poor Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, sensitive bordering on priggish): all this English wizard wants to do is protect the world’s magical animals from “the most vicious creature on earth: humans.” But doing so means traveling to America, where even the wizards are against him — right off the boat, he’s …
J.K. Rowling goes full Dickens (or at least Dickensian) in an absolute dreary slog of a story full of mysterious bloodlines, secret and/or forbidden and/or frustrated love affairs, unfeeling social mores, class struggle, wretched bureaucracy, fractured families, and awkward allegories. Oh, and a big, weird speech from Johnny Depp as …
J.K. Rowling goes full Dickens (or at least Dickensian) in an absolute dreary slog of a story full of mysterious bloodlines, secret and/or forbidden and/or frustrated love affairs, unfeeling social mores, class struggle, wretched bureaucracy, fractured families, and awkward allegories. Oh, and a big, weird speech from Johnny Depp as …
J.K. Rowling goes full Dickens (or at least Dickensian) in an absolute dreary slog of a story full of mysterious bloodlines, secret and/or forbidden and/or frustrated love affairs, unfeeling social mores, class struggle, wretched bureaucracy, fractured families, and awkward allegories. Oh, and a big, weird speech from Johnny Depp as …
How can something so busy be so boring? Maybe it's because the Wachowskis have officially begun cannibalizing their own work. Way back in 1999, The Matrix gave us a Chosen One who gets introduced to a reality entirely beyond his experience, a reality based on a terrifying premise: humanity reduced …
Sincere story of answered prayers, mostly those of one Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), an ex-con who tastes mercy and tries to break free from his criminal past (he stole a loaf of bread). But the reformed man is pursued by Javert (Russell Crowe), a lawman who does not believe reform …
A gossipy peekaboo based on Colin Clark’s memoir as an assistant on the English set of 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl. He has a crush on Marilyn Monroe, who reciprocates voluptuously (this may be mostly imagined), while costar and director Laurence Olivier fumes. Eddie Redmayne is appealing as coltish …
Infidelity, homosexuality, incest, madness, and murder among the Bakelite heirs. Fact-based story, unconvincing in period (mid-Forties through early-Seventies), performance, dialogue, staging. Filmmaker Tom Kalin’s sophomore effort shows little advance over his freshman Swoon. His graduation falls behind schedule. With Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Eddie Redmayne, Hugh Dancy, and Elena Anaya.
Based on what little I know of Stephen Hawking’s private and personal life, the man has never given the impression of one prone to wresting pity from gawkers. Why then turn the life of the smartest guy on the planet into a treacly, over-romanticized tearjerker? Music and lighting act as …