Director: Ruben Fleischer Stars: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed Perhaps its just the personas that they've maintained, but when you think of Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams, you assume they wouldn't be the kind of celebrity names engulfed by the Marvel freight train. That they might somehow be 'above' it. Like Ethan Hawke. But … Continue reading Review: Venom
Director: Michael Gracey Stars: Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams If you're going to make a musical about P.T. Barnum, the mid-19th century's 'greatest showman' and incorrigible humbug merchant, you'd better be prepared to go all out. Modern musicals are curious beasts. Take the feted La La Land from Damien Chazelle, for instance. While the sentiment … Continue reading Review: The Greatest Showman
Director: Ridley Scott Stars: Christopher Plummer, Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg Though it can't possibly have been the press of his choosing, the hubbub surrounding Kevin Spacey's fall from grace may have provided Ridley Scott with much-needed momentum for his new movie All The Money In The World, an elaboration of a true-life yarn that had been … Continue reading Review: All The Money In The World
Director: Kelly Reichardt Stars: Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Lily Gladstone Certain Women is Kelly Reichardt's sixth feature and by this humble writer's count at least three of her previous films are five-star masterpieces. Not one of them is a dud. She is one of America's great living filmmakers, yet she has yet to have anything resembling … Continue reading Review: Certain Women
Director: Kenneth Lonergan Stars: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges Kenneth Lonergan's latest indie epic is here, and like his last - 2011's under-seen Margaret - it's a slowly defrosting tale of grief and responsibility, implicitly American in its specific geography but broadly universal in its honest truisms. Lonergan plies his trade in an overpopulated field, … Continue reading Review: Manchester By The Sea
One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. The triple step of the waltz is a good simile for Sarah Polley’s latest feature film, which deals with the complications inherent when there’re two men and one woman. The one woman is Michelle Williams, playing Margot, and this is completely her film. … Continue reading Review: Take This Waltz
***originally written 19 January 2011*** There are some movies that are not 'date' movies. Irreversible, for instance, would've been a pretty shocking choice, and I've heard a funny story about a friend who chose Shortbus. Blue Valentine doesn't go anywhere near the unflinching territory of those movies, but, in it's own way, pulls as few … Continue reading Review: Blue Valentine
