‘Selma’ & Louie Z: Awards Season’s Historical Heavyweights

Some films are great. Some films are Important. Some are both, some are neither. Many are one, attempting to be the other. This time of year always unleashes at least one major release about a historical event we’re all familiar with, usually a true story, often centered around a major war or some other national […]

America’s ‘Most Violent’: Chandor Explores The Price Of Prosperity

You don’t make a movie about Wall Street in 2011 unless you’re saying something about what’s going down in America. J.C. Chandor did that with the gripping drama Margin Call, taking us inside the offices of a fictional investment bank on the literal eve of the financial collapse that (temporarily?) crippled the United States in […]

Anti-Gravity: Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’ Is OK To Go

Last year, Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity blew us away. Not everyone loved the film, but most could agree that it was dazzling to behold on the big screen (especially in 3D) and one giant leap forward in cinema on a technical level. It was a thrill ride as much as a movie, anchored by one single […]

Solomon Chained: McQueen Unleashes A Mighty ‘Slave’

Sometimes, you feel like a movie is just speaking directly to you. I saw Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave last night, and I could so identify with the protagonist Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) — because I, too, have been subject to the twisted whims and brutal hand of cruel fates and a merciless master. […]