Posts Tagged ‘film review’
 

 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “Rush”

  The writer Peter Morgan is a whiz at boring into little-remembered (and in the US, sometimes little-known) crannies of recent history and scooping out the rich drama inside, with scripts like The Deal, Frost/Nixon and Th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto 2014 Review: “The Last 5 Years”

  THE LAST 5 YEARS (Radius/Weinstein) – release date currently unscheduled – Worth A Ticket Richard LaGravenese’s  film version of Jason Robert Brown’s THE LAST 5 YEARS, which premiered at the Tor...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “August: Osage County”

  The writer/producer/director John Wells made his reputation as the showrunner of ER, and he’s known as one of the most consistent, professional producers in the network business, with impeccable shows like The Wes...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Review: “Room”

  Despite its compact scale, Emma Donoghue’s bestselling novel ROOM was a daunting candidate for film adaptation, because so much of its impact depends on its very specific narrator’s voice, a 5-year old named ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Review: “A Tale of Love and Darkness”

  Natalie Portman certainly hasn’t made it easy for herself with her debut as a writer/director, A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS.  The film, which premiered at Cannes (but tellingly, doesn’t yet have a US distribu...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto 2014 Review: “Nightcrawler”

  NIGHTCRAWLER (Open Road) – Opens October 31 – Worth A Ticket Over the past few years, Jake Gyllenhaal has seemed determined to scrub the wholesomeness out of his screen image, in movies like Zodiac, Brothers,...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Film Festival Review: “Colette”

  COLETTE (no distrib):  These days, the early 20th Century French writer known as Colette is remembered mostly if at all for having written the story that became the musical Gigi, but her own life proves to be remarkably...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “The Last of Robin Hood”

  THE LAST OF ROBIN HOOD is an odd miss, a sliver of movie history that seems to have all the right elements but never quite jells.  The title refers to Errol Flynn, legendary swashbuckling star of The Adventures of Rob...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “12 Years A Slave”

  Steve McQueen (the filmmaker) doesn’t take it easy on audiences.  His first feature Hunger provided an excruciatingly detailed look at the fatal hunger strike of the Irish convict Bobby Sands, and he followed it w...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto 2014 Review: “Clouds of Sils Maria”

  CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (IFC):  no release date scheduled – Watch It At Home Olivier Assayas is a dazzlingly ambitious filmmaker, determined to do something totally different with each project he undertakes.  The re...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”

  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE:  Buy A Ticket – The Odds Remain in This Franchise’s Favor Gary Ross did a fine, gritty job as director and co-writer of the first Hunger Games adaptation, one especially attu...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE FILM REVIEW: “Hellion”

  Of all the films in this year’s US Dramatic Competition at Sundance, Kat Candler’s HELLION was the one that most closely matched what’s become a festival template: Aggressively shaky handheld camerawork...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto 2014 Review: “St. Vincent”

  ST. VINCENT (Weinstein) – Opens October 24 – Worth A Ticket Bill Murray has perfected the persona of the grouchy, reluctant hero.  The image has even attached itself to him professionally:  although he̵...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “Labor Day”

  LABOR DAY is a beautifully performed, well crafted Harlequin romance.  As such, it’s a shock coming from writer/director Jason Reitman (based on Joyce Maynard’s novel), one that goes in a completely differen...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Toronto Film Festival Review: “Being Charlie”

  Sadly, the phrase “BEING CHARLIE is Rob Reiner’s best film in years” doesn’t mean nearly as much as it once would have.  After a decade where he could do no wrong, he has, incredibly enough, been...
by Mitch Salem