By all accounts, the 85th annual Academy Awards was a star-studded affair, with glamorous people saying glamorous things in glamorous clothing. Sadly, I missed this year’s telecast due the fact that Seth MacFarlane makes me want to go on a tri-state killing spree. If you’d like to catch up with some of the Oscar winners […]
Glenn McDonald
Posted inFilm & Television
Following a group of Brits through their lives in 56 Up
56 Up opens Friday (see times below) Our rating: Director Michael Apted’s Up series is one of the most intriguing projects in the history of documentary film. Initiated in 1963, the series began with a profile of 14 British 7-year-olds from various walks of life. Every seven years since then, Aptedan assistant on the first […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Brando, Kazan and On The Waterfront
courtesy of the Criterion Collection Director Elia Kazan’s classic 1954 drama On The Waterfront tells the story of dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), a once-promising boxer whose life is derailed when he gets mixed up with mobbed-up labor union honchos on the NYC waterfront. As you may have heard, Terry coulda been a contender. On […]
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DVD+Digital: Game of Thrones, 30 Rock and TV binge watching
courtesy of HBO Home Entertainment In the days before DVD/VHS, Netflix and endless online options — back when we had a little sanity left — TV binge watching was confined to weekend basic cable marathons. If you wanted to see all the episodes of a particular show in sequence, this was your sole option. Only […]
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DVD+Digital: Denzel Washington, DVD extras and Flight
courtesy of Paramount Pictures After nearly a decade of experimentation with motion-capture animation, director Robert Zemeckis returned to live action filmmaking last fall with Flight, starring Denzel Washington. The film tells the story of commercial airline pilot Whip Whitaker, who must confront his demons after crash landing a airliner while drunk on vodka and high […]
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DVD+Digital: Colors, shadows and Tales of the Night
courtesy of Cinedigm In recent years, I’ve become fascinated with animated foreign films for kids. There’s so much good stuff out there — some recent examples include The Secret of Kells (Ireland), Chico & Rita (Spain), A Cat in Paris (France) and Ponyo (Japan). These are movies you’re unlikely to see in theaters, so you […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Warm Bodies is a charming young zombie romance
Warm Bodies opens Friday (see times below) Our rating: As a movie idea, Warm Bodies absolutely should not work. The premise sounds like the worst kind of trash culture recycling: the zombie apocalypse movie crossed with the romantic comedy. Surprisingly, Warm Bodies not only works, it occasionally soars. Thanks to the clever script by writer/ […]
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DVD+Digital: South Central, found footage and End of Watch
courtesy of Universal Pictures End of Watch — the intense police drama new to DVD, Blu-ray and digital this week — truly is a different kind of cop movie. I know, I know. They all say that. But director David Ayer (writer of Training Day) executes an interesting game plan here and gets big results […]
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Mom fight! Jessica Chastain battles a maternal ghost in the very scary Mama
courtesy of Universal Pictures Mama*** starsOpens Friday For several years now, I’ve held the considered opinion that Jessica Chastain is the single most beautiful creature on the planet. Now I know the truth: Jessica Chastain dressed as a goth rocker is the most beautiful creature on the planet. Chastain’s lovely performance regularly elevates Mama, the […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Distance, despair and Detropia
courtesy of Docudrama Films Family lore holds that my mom and dad met as teenagers during Detroit’s heyday in the 1950s, when the Motor City was an enviable American metropolis. Mom worked at a diner downtown. Dad raced hot rods up Telegraph Road. She calmed his ass down and we settled in the suburbs, six […]
