Film Review: Into the Woods

Into the Woods opens in wide release on Christmas Day, December 25th. Check your local listings for showtimes. Adapting stage musicals to the big screen is hard. While the screen may loom over the audience like some all-encompassing monolith, it still never feels big enough to capture the spectacle of live theater. Compounding the problem …

DVD Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Reviewing a filmmaker’s swing at the children’s genre is usually pretty difficult and on par with reviewing a musician’s Christmas record and trying to make sense of it with the rest of their catalogue.  However, Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” is not like most children’s films. “Fox,” is based on the children’s book by Roald …

Golden Globe Noms Released

Tuesday morning found people on the west coast up very early to hear the announcement of the Golden Globe nominations.  Here’s the full list, with the TV categories included: Best Motion Picture – Drama Avatar (2009) The Hurt Locker (2008) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009) Up in the …

Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Reviewing a filmmaker’s swing at the children’s genre is usually pretty difficult and on par with reviewing a musician’s Christmas record and trying to make sense of it with the rest of their catalogue.  However, Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” is not like most children’s films.

Review: Julie & Julia

If food and meals truly bring people together, is it that big a leap to see food bridging the gap of time and distance to bring two people together?  In Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” the two brought together, (so to speak,) are Julie Powell and Julia Child. 

Streep Joins “Fantastic” Cast

Reports say Meryl Streep is doing one of the voices in Wes Anderson’s upcoming animated movie, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”  Streep will reportedly be replacing Cate Blanchett.  Streep joins a pretty great cast.  Already cast in the movie are George Clooney, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Michael Gamobn, Adrien Brody and Wes Anderson himself. This should …

DVD Review: Mama Mia!

Islands in drama have always been mystical, mysterious places.  From the islands in Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island,” every island seems to be rife with a lot of things that might not be found on the mainland.  Add to the list director Phyllida Lloyd’s film version of the hit stage musical, “Mama …

Review: Doubt

  John Patrick Shanley returns to the director’s chair with this adaptation of his Pulitizer-prize winning play, ‘Doubt.’  (For those of you who remember such things, Shanley’s first film was ‘Joe vs. the Volcano.)  Shanley’s second film, is, clearly, worlds away from his first.