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Shira Piven on Mental Illness in ‘Welcome to Me’

Kristen Wiig continues to flex her dramatic chops in her latest starring vehicle Welcome to Me, in which she plays Alice, a woman with borderline personality disorder who wins the lottery and becomes a multi-millionaire overnight. With the means and opportunity to finally break from her carefully regimented lifestyle, consisting of medication, therapy and endless …

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‘Life of Crime’ is a fun but lesser Elmore Leonard adaptation

Ordell Robbie (Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def) and Louis Gara (John Hawkes) get much more than they bargained for after kidnapping the wife of a corrupt real-estate developer (Tim Robbins). As it turns out, Frank Dawson has no intentions of paying the ransom for the well-being of his wife, Mickey (Jennifer Aniston). He had been seeking a way to leave his wife of many years for his mistress (Isla Fisher), and fortunately Ordell and Louis took care of the messiness of actually leaving Mickey for him by kidnapping her.

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‘Life of Crime’‘Joe’ Movie Review – a fine addition to canon of Elmore Leonard adaptations

With the timing of a well-orchestrated heist, the latest screen adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel closes this year’s Toronto Film Festival. Given his recent passing and the well-deserved plaudits from various luminaries of pen and screen, his rap sheet has been celebrated over the past few weeks. Based on Leonard’s novel The Switch, writer and director Daniel Schechter has managed to embezzle a fine addition to the long list of lean Leonard works. Although it doesn’t quite hit the jackpot, it does manage to purloin some fine criminal characters and a gutsy group of belly laughs to boot.

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Jacob’s Ladder astonishing on the eye and hard on the heart

Jacob’s Ladder Directed by Adrian Lynn Written by Bruce Joel Rubin US, 1990 Long before The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense made it a commonplace institution, the twist ending was a tool rarely used by screenwriters, a choice of brevity which stopped the trope from becoming a stale and predictable attempt to garner some …

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Strangest & Most Controversial Moments In the History of the Academy Awards (Pt.1)

The saying goes: If Hollywood is really the movie capital of the world, then Oscar night is the world’s biggest wrap party, and like all parties, each event comes with unwelcome guests, embarrassing situations, strange fashions and controversial moments. In fact, controversy and the Oscars seem to go hand in hand and despite the fact …

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Tim Robbins Joins Green Lantern

Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) has been cast in Green Lantern, the Martin Campbell-directed comic book adaptation of the ongoing popular DC Comics series. According to Heat Vision, Robbins will play Senator Hammond, a former astronaut who becomes infused with psychic powers and telekinetic abilities. The character who does not appear in the comic book …

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