Films That Matter
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
What would seemingly have been a massive hit crime film with an utterly impressive cast, Beat the Devil (1953) instead became a most bizarre experiment. With unhappy director John Huston having thrown the script out the window, he brought in the legendary Truman Capote to then help him co-write the story based upon British journalist Claud Cockburn’s novel of the same name at the very last minute. With a cast already assembled in Italy, names like Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida (in her first English language movie), Peter Lorre and others were simply sitting there and waiting to get started.
-
Walkaway, Walkaway. . . “It” Will Follow
It FollowsFebruary 21, 2016It Follows is a surprisingly creative new horror picture that avoids using gore and builds its atmosphere the old-fashioned way, taking the typical sex-crazed teen motif and flipping it upside down to create a novel and interesting picture.
-
The Long and Short of It
The Big ShortFebruary 16, 2016Adam McKay, the comedic director best known for films like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers, takes a much more serious turn in the Academy Award Best Picture nominee The Big Short.
-
Star Pick with Marcus Ovnell
A Road Less TravelledArlington RoadFebruary 14, 2016As you probably read previously, Marcus Ovnell, the writer/director of the outstanding Swedish dramatic thriller The Break-In, explained that his favourite film of all-time was the 1990's classic Shawshank Redemption. Though he said that this was his clear favourite, he also highlighted a lesser known movie as one that I (and others) should watch – the 1999 thriller Arlington Road.
-
A Thrilling ‘Sub’ject
Black SeaFebruary 9, 2016A recent movie that has sadly gone completely under the radar is the 2014 submarine heist thriller Black Sea.
-
A Tale of Two Cities
BrooklynFebruary 7, 2016I can only imagine how difficult, lonesome and melancholic a solo journey across the Atlantic Ocean must have been for the numerous immigrants who travelled from Europe to North America – especially those who made the journey before technology and ingenuity made things, for lack of a better word, easy.
-
Make Space for this Room
RoomJanuary 31, 2016Though most people would call the highly regarded Academy Award nominated film Room a searing drama, to me, if you boil it down to its base element, it is a horror picture – not the type that we now call horror, with chainsaws, gore and excessive violence, but one that causes the viewer to feel fear and shock in the most realistic and human of ways, thus making it a very powerful and hard-hitting viewing experience. And a highly worthwhile one at that.
