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 […]
A mild-mannered husband copes with his wife’s disappearance and police who are increasingly skeptical of his innocence in Gone Girl. Beloved children’s book author Amy Elliot (Rosamund Pike) could have anyone. She’s bright, beautiful, wealthy and cultured. Into her life comes an unassuming, soft-spoken, but disarmingly suave man named Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck). His puppy dog-like adorableness and […]
A young woman sets her sights on completing a rigorous journey across 1,700 miles of Australian desert in Tracks. In 1975, Robyn Davidson (Mia Wasikowska) embarked on a two-year internship, learning firsthand everything she could about Australian camels. These notoriously ill-tempered and unpredictable creatures would literally provide the backing for a grand journey she was driven to […]
A disillusioned psychiatrist travels the world looking to unravel the mystery behind true happiness in Hector and the Search for Happiness. Day after mundane day, Hector (Simon Pegg) doles out fairly useless advice to his cadre of miserable psychiatric patients with no sense of ever bringing them any real escape from their problems. The stress […]
Liam Neeson has evolved into one of the most reliable tough guys in motion pictures. His career certainly didn’t start out that way with most of his memorable work taking place in dramas like Rob Roy and Schindler’s List. He convinced me that he could be a badass when he lengthened both his hair and […]
Four siblings reunite at their childhood home after the death of their father in This is Where I Leave You. Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) returns home for his father’s funeral, where he joins his mother Hillary (Jane Fonda), his sister Wendy (Tina Fey), his older brother Paul (Corey Stoll), his younger brother Phillip (Adam Driver) and the […]