dvd of the week Based on a book by Martin Sixsmith, Philomena tells the story of a retired Irish nurse (Judi Dench) who reveals to her daughter, 50 years after the fact, that as an unmarried young woman (Sophie Kennedy Clark), she had given birth to a son in a convent. As repayment to the…
dvd of the week The Broadway production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County is considered one of the great theater events of the last decade. An extended family, full of secrets and problems verging on mental illness, come together for a funeral. All hell breaks loose. It’s funny, moving and upsetting. Somehow,…
dvd of the week John Krokidas and Austin Bunn’s wonderful film about the beginnings of the Beats, the phrase “kill your darling” is spoken by an English professor with the usual purpose – edit down your extravagant writing – but it also means a great deal more. One of the first scenes in the film…
dvd of the week While I laud Disney for going back to basics with Frozen, for hiring Broadway stars to voice musical roles rather than stunt-casting them with super famous names, and I laud Disney for continuing their mission to give us stories about almost-feminist princesses who need their mothers or sisters more than they…
In this comic fictionalization of the Abscam scandal in the 1970s – in which the FBI gleefully and unethically entrapped more than a dozen politicians including six members of the House of Representatives and a senator – David O. Russell has made his best movie, and he’s the guy who gave us The Fighter and…
dvd of the week In the Coen brothers’ latest film, they focus on one of Greenwich Village’s folk musicians who failed. In the winter of 1961, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is sleeping on the couches of the friends who aren’t angry with him, reeling from the suicide of his former singing partner and a furtive…
dvd of the week Steve McQueen’s remarkable 12 Years a Slave is based on the 1855 autobiography of Solomon Northup, played in the film by the great British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor. Solomon was born free and educated in upstate New York, and while his wife and children are away, he is kidnapped and sold into…
Jodie Foster and Matt Damon in Elysium dvd of the week Somehow, I missed Elysium, Neill Blomkamp’s follow up to the now-classic District 9. It’s about a future humanity where the rich and powerful live in a paradisiacal space station called Elysium, and the poor and desperate are still on Earth, scrounging for scraps and…
Lindsay Lohan in The Canyons dvd of the week: In this already infamous film, Lindsay Lohan is perfectly cast as Tara, a failed former model who is with a cruel man only for his money. She knows the dark side of Hollywood, and it seems that her travels through addiction, derision and being the object…
dvd of the week For some reason, I have been unable to catch Blackfish, the much heralded documentary about the cruel and otherwise problematic treatment of the very complex, very smart killer whales at SeaWorld. The amusement park chain, which has its flagship location in San Diego, has complained about the film’s accuracy, but their…
