Directed by Ron Howard Around halfway through Apollo 13 there is an unexpected dream sequence. Astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) looks longingly at the moon as he, Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Kevin Bacon) orbit, seemingly close enough to reach out and tough the cold surface though unable to complete the planned descent to … Continue reading Apollo 13 (1995)
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Apollo 11 (2019)
Directed by Todd Douglas Miller Apollo 11 is a riveting, a cinematic documentary that does away with talking heads, narration and outsider perspectives. This is a movie that, thanks to previously unseen footage, puts us right there on the ground floor with the astronauts, observers and mission control during the entirety of the Apollo 11 mission, … Continue reading Apollo 11 (2019)
Greta (2018)
Directed by Neil Jordan Greta is a modern, dark fairytale as well as a stylish stalker-thriller, though maybe those things now go hand in hand. It's pulpy, sensational, absurd and all around pretty wonderful, a genre movie with modest ambitions that delivers on what is promised. It starts bright and beautiful, with two friends, Frances … Continue reading Greta (2018)
Cast Away (2000)
Directed by Robert Zemeckis Because of its simplicity, performance and the relative restraint on the part of director Robert Zemeckis, Cast Away is a remarkable film. It tells the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), a FedEx worker who finds himself stranded on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, for over four years. The best … Continue reading Cast Away (2000)
Paddleton (2019)
Directed by Alex Lehmann Michael and Andy (Mark Duplass, Ray Romano) are two friends and neighbors whose lives are defined by a healthy amount of stasis, even when Michael learns he has terminal cancer. They watch and re-watch their favorite kung fu movies, reheat the same flavored pizzas and play a made up game (Paddleton) … Continue reading Paddleton (2019)
Everybody Knows (2018)
Directed by Asghar Farhadi Everybody Knows takes a kidnapping and turns it into a melodrama. That may sound facetious, but it's an effective, tense family drama that plays out like something Shakespearean. There's a wedding in a small, idyllic Spanish town that brings together a large family and their orbit of friends. The two most … Continue reading Everybody Knows (2018)
Big Fish (2003)
Directed by Tim Burton Whether simply because of the framing device or because he's a narcissist, Big Fish is a series of tales about a blowhard for whom everything goes his way, and yet it just yanks on the heartstrings every time I watch it. As an old man Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) struggles to maintain … Continue reading Big Fish (2003)
Quiz Show (1994)
Directed by Robert Redford Robert Redford's Quiz Show is an exhilarating drama about the fraud involved in a 1950s reality television program that pits two contestants against each other, answering trivia questions for a cash prize. Like with so many current reality tv programs, "reality" is actually quite constructed, and the film details the investigation into … Continue reading Quiz Show (1994)
JFK (1991)
Directed by Oliver Stone Despite having never seen this film, my vague understanding has always been that it played fast and loose with the facts. Oliver Stone's movie challenges the established record of the John F. Kennedy assassination, and being a good little boy I've always taken the establishment at face value. Having finally seen JFK, … Continue reading JFK (1991)
Big Eyes (2014)
Directed by Tim Burton Big Eyes is Ed Wood-lite, another dramatization of a true story about an artist with varying degrees of success. In the former Tim Burton movie, Ed Wood was a director of unmistakably bad movies, though undeterred by each subsequent success. He remained an optimist through and through. In Big Eyes the … Continue reading Big Eyes (2014)
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