Tag Archives: review
Wild (2014)
Wild will make you believe in the healing power of nature In 1995, Cheryl Strayed’s life was crashing down around her. Her mother died following a short fight against cancer, she was cheating on her husband, and she was shooting heroin. A pregnancy scare was the last straw. Cheryl left her home, her job and […]
Big Eyes (2014)
Delightful telling of a true story that feels made for the big screen Watching the story of Margaret and Walter Keane unfold in Big Eyes it’s hard to believe that it all really happened. A team of Hollywood’s best screenwriters may not have been able to come up with a better plot. Margaret, a newly […]
Selma (2014)
David Oyelowo gives a virtuoso performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. in a biopic the great leader deserves Biopics can be a little bland. No matter who it’s about, or how fascinating his or her life and accomplishments, the movie itself tends to follow the same pattern: troubled childhood, early success, marital problems, a spectacular […]
Into the Woods (2014)
A faithful, crowd-pleasing adaptation of a Broadway classic What makes a great movie musical? A top-notch book and songs, competent cast, good production value and above all, only deviations from the original show when necessary for improving it for the screen. Into the Woods delivers on all counts. Stepen Sondheim’s fairy tale classic is imagined […]
The Ghastly Love of Johnny X (2013)
(Originally published in LA Weekly) Turn on your spaceships and fire up the jukebox. In writer-director Paul Bunnell’s supremely ridiculous tale, 1950s-style rebel Johnny X (Will Keenan) and his coed gang of dropouts, the Ghastly Ones, are exiled to Earth from their faraway planet. Their crime, it seems, is performing selfish deeds involving a powerful […]
Forbidden Games (1952)
From the ages of about one to 12, half of my world existed within the confines of my imagination. I spent hours there, drawing inspiration from everyone and everything around me to build vast stories that would occupy my hours of playtime. Once involved in a game, it was tough to leave it. Most summer […]
Robin Migdol 