Tag: Jonathan Pryce

Reviews

DOUGH

Michael J. Casey

RECIPE FOR A SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS MOVIE Star to finish: ~90 minutes Servings: One smallish art-house audience Take two parts religion One part aging individual (preferably white) Blend together until their inherent differences rise to the surface. Let rest. Add a pinch of social realism — not too much, just enough to taste. Forcefully work in a few digs at capitalism. Introduce various plot threads. Do not incorporate. Bake in the lukewarm oven for 90 minutes and serve  to those with dulled taste buds. Building predictably and hitting each plot point with Syd Field’s manufactures precision, Dough is a socially conscious movie … Continue reading DOUGH

Reviews

THE SALVATION

Michael J. Casey

1870, America: a train rounds the bend and stops at a dusty horse town to deliver a wife (Nanna Øland Fabricius) and son (Toke Lars Bjarke) to the husband and father who hasn’t seen either in a decade. They seemed doomed from the start, but maybe that just the ominous score accompanying their arrival. That husband and father is Jon (Mads Mikkelsen – providing another stellar performance), a Danish soldier who has relocated to the Wild West to start again and build a new life in a new country. Jon is happy to see his wife and meet his son … Continue reading THE SALVATION

Reviews

LISTEN UP PHILIP

Michael J. Casey

“I want you to contextualize my sadness,” Philip says. “Put whatever you’re going through into perspective.” Philip delivers this line to his girlfriend, but he might as well address it directly to the camera. Or to the world. As far as Philip is concerned, it’s all the same thing. Galileo was wrong; the Earth is in fact geocentric. And it revolves around him. In Listen Up Philip, Philip Lewis Friedman (Jason Schwartzman) joins the list of cinema narcissists, a long line if there ever was one. The dialog I chose to open this review comes in the final fifteen minutes … Continue reading LISTEN UP PHILIP

Movie Beat

Movie Beat – 03.29.13

Michael J. Casey

Blancanieves – Snow White en español, re-telling of a  Grimm Fairy Tale in beautiful black and white photography by Kiko de la Rica and scored by Alfonso de Vilallonga. It was last year’s entry for the Foreign Film Oscar from Spain, but it will no doubt be called this year’s The Artist. Set in 1920s Spain, a young girl grows up with just a Father and learns his craft as a bullfighter. Hated and driven out by her evil stepmother, she joins a troop of traveling dwarves and becomes the most famous bullfighter in Spain.  Performances from Ángela Molina, Maribel … Continue reading Movie Beat – 03.29.13