Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 18 minutesDirector: Todd Phillips Quick Impressions:Remember back when it was fun to be a Batman villain? Watching various film and TV projects, I always came away with the sense that in Gotham, the villains emerged from their confining origins like a butterfly bursting from its chrysalis. …
Rating: RRuntime: 1 hour, 59 minutesDirector: Fede Alvarez Quick Impressions:Back in the spring, I took my daughter to the second Dune and spent the entire movie thinking I was doomed to die within the week. Then last night, the two of us went to see Alien: Romulus, just the second …
Emily Blunt Age: 40 (born February 23) Film: Oppenheimer Role: Kitty Oppenheimer, devoted wife to her fourth husband, J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb. Kitty has spent a lifetime battling demons which has prepared her perfectly to square off against her husband when he needs a firm hand …
Bradley Cooper Age: 49 Film: MaestroRole: Leonard Bernstein, all at once the composer who requires silence, the conductor who thrives on adulation, the devoted family man anchored by his wife and children, and the lover of men and women alike who becomes infatuated with young men and cannot stand to …
Annette Bening Age: 65Film: NyadRole: Diana Nyad, the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida unassisted, though some contest this achievement. Buoyed by the steadfast support of her lifelong best friend Bonnie, Diana wants women everywhere to know that their life isn’t over just because they turn sixty and …
Rating: PG-13Runtime: 2 hours, 1 minuteWriters: Julia Cox, Diana NyadDirectors: Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Quick Impressions: I approached this movie reluctantly because I kept seeing promotional images of Annette Benning looking determined in a bathing cap, and that just didn’t grab me. (Note: I have absolutely nothing against bathing …
Rating: R Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutes Writers: Cord Jefferson, Percival Everett Director: Cord Jefferson Quick Impressions: American Fiction is a bit like a mashup of Adaptation, Sorry to Bother You, The Producers, and your typical indie film about a moderately dysfunctional family navigating its way through crisis. On the …
Rating: R Runtime: 1 hour, 57 minutesWriters: Samy Burch, Alex MechanikDirector: Todd Haynes Quick Impressions:“Why are all of this year’s Oscar hopefuls vying to see who can be more…?” I asked my husband, then drew a blank. “Discursive? That’s not right. You know! Sometimes I can be…discursive? That’s not the …
Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 21 minutes Writers: Marcs Gardley, Alice Walker, Marcia Norman Director: Blitz Bazawule Quick Impressions: Taraji P. Henson has convinced me that I need a red dress, a peacock fan, and a boat. Her arrival at Harpo’s Joint is probably the moment in The Color Purple …
Rating: R Runtime: 2 hours, 31 minutesWriters: Justine Triet, Arthur HarariDirector: Justine Triet Quick Impressions:Why when I get a teeny bit behind on awards season fare are there suddenly two potential Oscar nominated films starring German actress Sandra Hüller? “Let’s see,” I said to my husband, looking for something Oscary …
