MCN Originals
The Weekend Report
Star Trek: Into Darkness zapped the competition as it launched an estimated $68.2 million in its maiden theatrical voyage. The Enterprise was the sole new wide national release.
Read the full article » No Comments »Wilmington on Movies: The Iceman
I tell you, Michael Shannon looks at you, or he looks at the camera, whatever, and the cold sweat just shoots right through you. I bet it spooks you almost as much as if you saw the real-life Iceman guy, the real Richie, ready to ice somebody
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Cannes Competition Review: Inside Llewyn Davis
The frosted, muted backdrops are captured by cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (“Amélie,” “Dark Shadows”), who steeps the film in faded bloom. It’s a gorgeous, misty visualization sure to instill nostalgia for those too young to have haunted locales like the Caffe Reggio or the Gaslight Café. As for Oscar Isaac’s performance, it’s hard not to simply babble superlatives.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Friday Estimates
Star Trek: Into Darkness goes mildly into space; Iron Man Three drops 52%; The Great Gatsby keeps its eye on the green light.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: Star Trek Into Darkness
In many ways, it’s a relief watching this picture. After a decade of Patrick Stewart and company, and then more than a decade of franchise silence, 2009’s Star Trek ingeniously brought the original seven Enterprise crew members back together—in the process, demonstrating a flair for matching the new younger actors playing the old characters with our memories of the original crew—and, as it turns out here, some others memories as well.
Read the full article » No Comments »Cannes Competition Review: Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian
Desplechin wants us to care about Picard’s general well-being and mental health, but nevertheless found it necessary to include the dullest of banal subplots that have nothing to do with the title character’s arc, coming off as excess and general shoe leather.
Read the full article » 3 Comments »Cannes Competition Review: Jeune Et Jolie
Vacth’s breakout performance demands we see more of her, and Isabelle’s unstoppable flirtation with danger is the source of continued inspiration for France’s former enfant terrible.
Read the full article » No Comments »Un Certain Regard Review: The Bling Ring
The Bling Ring is an early faux pas of the Festival; an overwhelmingly dull, why-do-we-care picture that was must have been far more fun to shoot than it is to actually consume.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Wilmington on DVDs: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
There are three Deborah Kerrs in Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger’s strange and wonderful British war epic, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, and like many young male moviegoers, I fell in love with all of them the first time I saw the movie.
Read the full article » No Comments »Cannes Competition Review: Heli
Escalante turns the camera on his hometown of Guadajuato to grapple with two of Mexico’s biggest problems: cartel and drug-related violence. Taken together, the result is a rattling experience, but still a fine film.
Read the full article » No Comments »Wilmington on DVDs: Starlet; Cloud Atlas
CO-PICKS OF THE WEEK: NEW – STARLET (Three Stars) U.S.: Sean Baker, 2013 (Music Box) There’s ’at least one redeeming thing about the movies. Sometimes, they don’t really need hundreds of millions of dollars worth of superstars and special affects and expensive stuff to engage and move us. Sometimes pretty much all they have to…
Read the full article » No Comments »The DVD Wrapup
Escape, Charles Swann III, Back to 1942, Frankie Go Boom, Face 2 Face, Last Stand, Eagles, Of Two Minds, Bletchley … and so much more.
Read the full article » No Comments »The Complete Countdown To Cannes: iPad Edition
Snapshots of each of the twenty filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the 66th Festival de Cannes in chronological order, in handy downloadable form.
Read the full article » No Comments »The Weekend Report
As the weekend went on, Iron Man blasted away from Gatsby… flying to a remarkable $949m worldwide with well over $100m still in the tank. This doesn’t diminish the success of a $50m+ opening for Gatsby, almost tripling the best opening of Baz Luhrmann’s career.
Read the full article » No Comments »Wilmington on Movies: Sightseers
Maybe I’m getting cranky, but I found very little to laugh at in the alleged black British comedy, Sightseers — a terminally nasty love-on-the-run thriller in which a couple of strangely ordinary-looking British misfits named Chris and Tina take a caravan trip though the North, a vacation that eventually turns into a murder spree.
Read the full article » No Comments »Wilmington on Movies: The Great Gatsby
Ignore the bashers. Baz Luhrmann’s often dazzling, sometimes excessive, frequently fascinating film of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age masterpiece, The Great Gatsby—a movie that has been trashed by a number of critics—is not only not a disaster. It’s one of the best movies of the still-young year.
Read the full article » 7 Comments »Friday Estimates
Iron Man keeps a slight lead for Friday, but The Great Gatsby reminds us that the public is often more interested in what Baz Luhrmann is selling than what critics find to complain about in his films.
Read the full article » No Comments »Countdown To Cannes: Roman Polanski
The last snapshot of one of the twenty filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the sixty-sixth Festival de Cannes.
Read the full article » No Comments »Countdown To Cannes: James Gray
The penultimate snapshot of one of the twenty filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the sixty-sixth Festival de Cannes.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Countdown To Cannes: Abdellatif Kechiche
The eighteenth snapshot of one of the twenty filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the sixty-sixth Festival de Cannes.
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