In what is probably the stagiest movie I’ve ever seen that was not actually a stage adaptation, Mass is a claustrophobic, extremely intimate experience where you feel trapped in a room, no, actually trapped at a table with four emotionally scarred individuals trying to have a conversation. The four people are two sets of parents …
While visiting friends in the rural area around Missoula, Montana, I heard about what the locals termed “mountain bachelors”. These were guys who purposely had fallen off the grid, often due to trauma (like Vietnam vets, for instance), living up in a remote cabin away from society. They’d emerge every now and then to check …
Howard (Will Smith) was a once dynamic creative executive, who let his company on charisma and talent. But now he is a broken, shell of a man after the death of his young daughter. The tragedy broke up his marriage and he is alone literally and figuratively in his grief, unable to come out of …
There has already been much criticism of reviewers giving away too much of the plot beforehand, which spoils somewhat of the “surprise” of the film, so I’ll do my best. The basic characters are college-boy Frank (Nick Stahl) dating an older woman (Marisa Tomei… acting!) who not only has a couple of kids, but a …
Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) are a long-married couple dealing with the grief of losing their only child. Their 4-year-old son was hit by a car 8 months earlier while chasing the family dog across the street in front of their house. Dealing with their loss is ripping them apart as a couple, …
I had heard buzz about The Door in the Floor when it was initially released, especially for Jeff Bridges’ performance (which doesn’t surprise me, as he is one of the most underrated American actors working today). But it had the curse of Movies That Came Out in Spring, meaning it got swept over for awards …
In the opening scene of the tear-jerking romance P.S. I Love You, we meet Holly and Gerry Kennedy (Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler). They got married young, and are still young and beautiful after 10 years, but boy do they bicker. Sure, the fighting is followed by make-up sex, but all I could think of …