To contact us Click HERE Hope Springs opening August 8th stars Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a couple with 31 years of marriage but absolutely no communication skills. The majority of the film takes place during their couples counseling and home exercises.
Going in I thought it would be more comedy, like It's Complicates or Somethings Gotta Give, but it's pretty heavy. I'd go as far as to say a bit "cringy" in it's revealing their personal problems, even if they are fictional.
It could be called a" feel good" movie, just for the sole reason that unless you're on the precipice of divorce, this movie makes your marriage look great. In seriousness it is an interesting look at what it takes to pull a marriage back from the edge. Both Meryl and Tommy are great. Just be prepared for more drama than comedy and maybe a few tears at the end.
To contact us Click HERE ParaNorman is a new noir kid movie opening August 17th. My 8 year old daughter and I attended a screening last week and both loved it. Probably for very different reasons.
First the kids review. My daughter loves these "scary" movies. She's seen them all. So you could say she was a sure thing going in. If your child isn't that thrilled by scary movies, I asked my daughter to rate this one compared to others. She said ParaNorman is scarier than Igor but not as scary as Coraline. She also thought it was very funny with lots of gross out and bathroom humor.
I'd give you an appropriate kids age range but really you know your kid best. My little one could have seen this at 5 but there were 8 year olds that had to leave the theatre at certain scenes.
Now from the parent: I agree with my kid. But I also think the movie has so much more to offer than ghosts and Zombie. The film has a bit of a 50's horror vibe and like all great 50's horror flicks it has an underlying message. ParaNorman has a great moral about bullying, mob mentality and that weird kid, that receives so much of their attention.
Norman is different than everyone else but that is what makes him special and in the end what turns out to be exactly what all of his classmates and towns people need. No one in the film is really painted as a bad guy (not even the zombies, believe it or not) just people making poor choices.
Finally, there is a wonderful message about letting go of anger and not letting it make you as wrong as those who have done you wrong. OH yeah and there's a whole thing about stereotyping...Really the list goes on and on. And then there are the ghost and zombies to make it all extremely palatable for all the kids and frankly, a lot of parents who could use the message too.
I highly recommend this film, and maybe a conversation about it's moral afterwards.
To contact us Click HERE Copper is a new show coming to BBC America August 19th. It's set in NewYork's Five Point in 1864 and centers on a police officer/Copper who has demons of his own.We're lucky, there will be 10 episodes instead of the Brits usual 6 or 8.
I was able to watch the first two episodes and found them action packed. It's a lot like every other Cop show, only the time period allows the officers to behave in all sorts of out of the question ways today. No one is having their Miranda rights read and hey if someone dies why not help yourself to some of their stuff?
It's a pretty gritty world and just about everyone needs a bath in every episode.The class system is in full force, even in the brothels. Both the stories and the lighting are very dark, but I'll be watching to see where this show goes.
This is BBC America's first original scripted drama but hopefully with it's success there'll be more to come!
To contact us Click HERE Cosmopolis is David Cronenberg's new film starring Robert Pattinson. It opens at Landmark Theatres in Los Angeles on August 17th.
I was invited to a screening last week. The film is extremely challenging for the viewer. It moves at an incredibly slow pace and the action mostly happens either off screen or in it's periphery. Robert Pattinson plays a currency speculator who, to my mind, is completely isolated from the world and longs to reconnect.
The entire film takes place in one day. Our main character has chosen to get a hair cut across town, that town being New York, and with the president in town and a celeb funeral, the journey takes all day. He travels in the back of his custom white limo and is joined throughout the trip by various colleagues and attendants.
The whole thing reminded me of a young man on a journey of discovery. Siddhartha in the modern age, maybe .I recommend this for extremely patient film goers, who enjoy unraveling a riddle with their film going.
To contact us Click HERE I get fiscal conservatism, I don't agree but I understand why others would feel it was a good choice. Where these people lose me is on the social issues. I can't believe a person who can't wrap their brain around more than half the world populations need for planned pregnancy, could understand all the other cultures in the world they would have to work with as President/Vice President.
Sorry for the politic bomb on this entertainment blog, but as the election draws closer they are going to happen.
Thanks to Planned Parenthood for so many things but also for making this graphic available. Follow the Planned Parenthood link if you would like to tell Ryan you disagree with his stance on these issues.
