A young man trades a troubled youth for Olympic success before taking on his greatest challenge as a prisoner of war in Unbroken. Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) grew up in the shadow of his older brother Pete. In an effort to stand apart, Louis often chose to focus his boundless energy on hijinks that more […]
The adopted son of an Egyptian Pharaoh becomes an unlikely messenger for his people in Exodus: Gods and Kings. In his final years as Pharaoh, Seti (John Turturro) believes that his biological son Ramses (Joel Edgerton) doesn’t possess the right temperament to lead his people. It’s in his adopted son Moses (Christian Bale) that he […]
A socially awkward, brilliant doctoral student meets the girl of his dreams before facing a life-changing illness in The Theory of Everything. While studying at Cambridge in 1963, 21-year-old Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) had begun to make a mark among both his professors and his peers. He was already showing an academic level of talent that would one […]
An avalanche at a French ski resort threatens to bury a family’s future in Force Majeure. Would you take a bullet for your spouse? Would you hang precariously from a ledge in an attempt to pull your child to safety? Would you stay behind in a fire to make sure that everyone else gets out […]
A once famous, now nearly forgotten, actor struggles to produce a new Broadway show in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Back in the ’80s, Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) won the coveted role of iconic superhero Birdman and with it the commensurate fame and fortune of a superstar. Within a few short years, the role also […]
A gifted young jazz drummer enrolls in a prestigious jazz school where perfection is the only acceptable goal in Whiplash. Renowned drummer Buddy Rich was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Even though I knew nothing about him outside the show, I would always make a point of tuning in whenever he was […]
A war-weary tank crew takes on desperate Nazi soldiers in the final months of World War II in Fury. George C. Scott played the indomitable and eccentric General George S. Patton in the 1970 film Patton and said, “No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb […]
A surly, aging curmudgeon becomes an unexpected role model for his sympathetic young neighbor in St. Vincent. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote, “Into each life some rain must fall.” Vincent McKenna (Bill Murray) would abrasively dismiss such talk as the ramblings of a sorely misguided optimist. The warming rays of sunlight that others claim to find in […]
A determined reporter for a small-time paper uncovers a shocking government conspiracy that threatens his very existence in Kill the Messenger. While investigating the curious case of a major drug dealer who’s seemingly impervious to prosecution, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) discovers a CIA connection that leads him ever deeper down a dark, disturbing rabbit hole. […]
High school students and their parents struggle with the changes that result from new technologies and the Internet in Men, Women & Children. Every generation faces a new set of challenges. Today, one of those challenges is in how the Internet and all that’s come as a result of it have forever changed the lives […]
Despite the best attempts to kill off these resilient creatures, vampires continue to be popular on television as well as the big screen. Shows like True Blood and films like the Twilight series perpetuate the fascination with vampires as well as their glamorization. Universal Pictures adds another monster to their canon with Dracula Untold. Although […]
A successful big-city defense attorney returns home to help his embattled father in The Judge. Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is the kind of defense attorney whom every guilty defendant hopes that he can afford. He knows every nook and cranny of the law and loses no sleep over bending it to his client’s will at every possible […]