Focus on Film & Television Reviews and writings about these subjects. As well as Pop Culture at times. With a bit of an edge and some color
Directed By: Bryan Singer
Written By: Anthony McCarten
Story By: Peter Morgan & Anthony McCarten
Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel
Editor: John Ottoman
Cast: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Joseph Mazzello, Mike Myers, Tom Hollander, Aiden Gillen, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, Allen Leech
The story of the legendary rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid.
Written & Directed By: Francois Ozon
Cinematography: Pascal Marti
Editor: Laure Gardette
Cast: Marine Vacth, Geraldine Pailhas, Charlotte Rampling, Fredtic Pierrot, Fantin Ravat, Johan Laysen
After losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes.
Continue reading “YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL (JEUNE AND JOLIE) (2013)”
Directed By: Robert Vornkahl
Written By: Andrew Beguin
Cinematography: Brian C. Harnick
Editor: Mike Api & Robert Vornkahl
Cast: Tequan Richmond, Jenna Boyd, Christina Scherer, Ashlie Atkinson, Richard Riehle, Seth Kirschner
David is fleeing from a murder, a pair of deadly con-men, and is inadvertently toting a bag full of crystal meth and cash with him. On the run, he ends up in a small, frozen, nowhere town in the heart of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Story & Directed By: Zach Snyder
Written By: Zach Snyder & Steve Shibuya
Cinematography By: Larry Fong
Editor: William Hoy
Cast: Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Carla Gugino, Oscar Issac, Scott Glenn, Jon Hamm
A young girl (Baby Doll) is locked away in a mental asylum by her abusive stepfather where she will undergo a lobotomy in five days’ time. Faced with unimaginable odds, she retreats to a fantastical world in her imagination where she and four other female inmates at the asylum, plot to escape the facility. The lines between reality and fantasy blur as Baby Doll and her four companions, as well as a mysterious guide, fight to retrieve the five items they need that will allow them to break free from their captors before it’s too late…
Directed By: Kimberly Pierce
Written By: Lawrence D.Cohen & Roberto Aguire-Sacasa
Based on the Book By: Stephen King
Cinematography By: Steve Yedlin
Editor: Lee Percy & Nancy Richardson
Music By: Marco Beltrami
Cast: Chloe Moretz, Julianne Moore, Portia Doubleday, Judy Greer, Ansel Elgort, Gabriella Wilde, Zoe Belkin, Barry Shabaka Henley, Demetrius Joyette, Evan Gilchrist, Alex Russell
A re-imagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White, a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother, who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.
Directed By: Ruben Fleischer
Written By: Will Beall
Based On The Book By: Paul Lieberman
Cinematography By: Dion Beebe
Editor: Alan Baumgarten & James Herbert
Cast: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Michael Pena, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Mireille Enos, Troy Garity, Nick Nolte De’Aundre Bonds, Giovanni Ribisi, Jon Polito, Michael Bacall, Don Harvey, Derek Mears
It’s 1949 Los Angeles, and gangster Mickey Cohen has moved in, with the intention of controlling all criminal activity in the city. He has bought local judges and police, and no one is willing to cross him or testify against him. Everyone except Seargant John O’Mara, a former World War II soldier, whose goal is to settle with his family in a peaceful Los Angeles. Police Chief William Parker decides to form a special unit whose mission is to take down Cohen, and chooses O’Mara to lead the unit. O’Mara chooses 4 cops and asks another cop and vet, Jerry Wooters to join him but Wooters is not interested. But when he witnesses the murder of a young boy by Cohen’s people, he joins them, and they decide to take apart Cohen’s organization. Cohen wonders if a rival is going after him, but eventually he realizes it’s the cops.
Directed By: Alexandre Aja
Written By: Keith Bunin
Based On The Novel By: Joe Hill
Cinematography By: Frederick Elmes
Editor: Baxter
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Kelli Garner, Joe Anderson , David Morse, James Remar, Kathleen Quinlan, Heather Graham
Written & Directed By: Steven Knight
Cinematography By: Chris Menges
Editor: Valerio Bonelli
Cast: Jason Statham, Agata Buzek Vicky McClure, Benedict Wong
Homeless and on the run from a military court martial, a damaged ex-special forces soldier navigating London’s criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man’s identity — transforming into an avenging angel in the process.
Directed By: Xavier Gens
Written By: Skip Woods
Cinematography By: Laurent Bares
Editor: Carlo Rizzo & Antoine Vareille
Cast: Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Henry Ian Cusick, Eriq Ebounaey
A gun-for-hire “Hitman” is a genetically-engineered, elite assassin known only as Agent 47 hired by a group known only as ‘The Organization’ is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe. But even 47 couldn’t anticipate a “random equation” in his life exactitude: the unexpected stirrings of his conscience and the unfamiliar emotions aroused in him by a mysterious Russian woman.
Directed By: Yorgos Lanthimos
Written By: Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
Cinematography By: Thimios Bakatakis
Editor: Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Cast: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Aggeliki Papoulia, Hristos Passalis, MaryTsoni, Anna Kalaitzidou
Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence ‘the sea’ refers to a large armchair and ‘zombies’ are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the über-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission. The father is the only family member who can leave the manicured lawns of their self-inflicted exile, earning their keep by managing a nearby factory, while the only outsider allowed on the premises is his colleague Christina, who is paid to relieve the son of his male urges. Tired of these dutiful acts of carnality, Christina disturbs the domestic balance.
Cut To The Chase 