Review – Rules Don’t Apply

Review – Rules Don’t Apply

In 1946, Hollywood mogul and aviation tycoon Howard Hughes got into a horrific plane crash in Beverly Hills, California.  The crash demolished three houses, blew up the plane Hughes was in, and nearly killed Hughes, causing him a number of injuries, including a crushed collar bone, multiple cracked ribs, crushed chest with collapsed left lung, shifting his heart to the right side of the chest cavity, and numerous third-degree burns. This crash pales in comparison to the…

Read More

Best of the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival

Best of the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival

The Chicago International Film Festival is officially over.  Over the past two weeks, I saw 22 movies (17 festival and five wide releases).  It was an exhausting two weeks, but an awesome two weeks.  I saw so many movies from all different countries and all different genres and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.  Here is a look at the best movies and performances I saw while attending the festival.  I’m including all…

Read More

Review – Bad Santa 2

Review – Bad Santa 2

Bad Santa 2 continues Hollywood’s idiotic trend of making sequels to great 2000’s comedies.  They got lucky with Anchorman 2 (2013), but have since missed at every single attempt after than, most notably with this year’s horrendous Zoolander 2.  Now, Bad Santa 2 isn’t the debacle that Zoolander 2 is.  It is just an unnecessary sequel with sporadic laughs and a predictable plot. Bad Santa 2 brings back to the boozing, cursing, sex-crazed Willie (Billy Bob Thornton).  When Willie is at…

Read More

Review – Moana

Review – Moana

Disney has done it again.  Moana is simply dazzling.  A sweet, funny, heartfelt film with beautiful animation and spectacular voice work. Moana is about a young girl named Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho), the destined princess of her tribe, though she feels there is more to her life than following in her father’s footsteps.  When her tribe and island are in danger, Moana adventures out to save them, by sailing the high seas in search of…

Read More

Top 5 – Brad Pitt Movies

Top 5 – Brad Pitt Movies

Brad Pitt has had a fascinating movie star career. A heartthrob of the 90s, Pitt’s career started off with films that mostly highlighted his good looks and ridiculously sculpted body, like Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise. But as Pitt matured as an actor, so did his performances. With performances in 12 Monkeys, Fight Club, and Snatch, Pitt proved that he was more than a pretty face and in the years following, has become one of…

Read More

Review – Nocturnal Animals

Review – Nocturnal Animals

The opening shot of Tom Ford’s second feature film, Nocturnal Animals, is a shot of an older, 300-plus pound nude woman dancing in slow-motion as gold confetti falls from the sky against a bright red backdrop.  It is a beautifully shot image, yet an unsettling one to a degree, especially as it is the first thing we see in the movie. This shot is what for Nocturnal Animals is as a movie.  Beautiful, yet unsettling. Nocturnal Animals follows Susan Morrow…

Read More

Review – Bleed for This

Review – Bleed for This

Here’s the deal with boxing movies; you know exactly how it is going to end.  Regardless of the story, the film will always end with a climactic fight where the main fighter will give it his all and either win or lose.  There are a couple exceptions to this, mainly Raging Bull (1980) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), but almost every other boxing film, from Rocky (1976), to Cinderella Man (2005), to The Fighter (2010), falls into this category. However, that…

Read More

Review – Shut In

Review – Shut In

Shut In is everything that is wrong with modern horror movies.  It is a scareless, dumb, predictable, laughable movie that made me immediately regret ever entering the theater. Shut In is about Mary (Naomi Watts), a widowed child psychologist who takes care of her crippled son (Charlie Heaton) in an isolated house in rural New England.  When one of Mary’s patients (Jacob Tremblay) goes missing near her house, she tries to find a way to…

Read More

Top 5 – Amy Adams Movies

Top 5 – Amy Adams Movies

I love Amy Adams.  From the first time I saw her as the innocent nurse in Catch Me If You Can (2002), she has grown into one of the finest actresses we have in Hollywood.  This weekend, she stars in the sci-fi thriller, Arrival, (my review right here).  So in honor of that, here are my five favorite Amy Adams movies. These movies are based on the performance of Adams and the quality of the movie. I…

Read More

Review – Moonlight

Review – Moonlight

Moonlight is one of the most important movies of 2016.  It looks at a part of life most people know nothing about – homosexuality in the African American community- and looks at in great depth, with excellent filmmaking and great performances. However, I didn’t love it. This is nowhere near a bad movie.  In fact, two-thirds of the movie are absolutely brilliant, and some of the toughest, most emotional cinema I’ve seen all year.  But,…

Read More
1 80 81 82 83 84 95