Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me Directed by Chiemi Karasawa USA, 2013 The worst thing you can say about Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me is that it’s too damn short, clocking in at just over 80 minutes. Within only a few of those minutes, it’s clear that the subject of this up-close-and-personal documentary could fill at least 2 …
Nicole Holofcener is one of the strongest voices working in movies today. Her films, often about the lives of everyday women, are consistently sharp and observant and Enough Said does not stray from her already terrific track record. As a writer she has a way of portraying her characters as people we know or someone that we could know.
When the news of Dennis Farina’s death by cancer at age 69 came through early this week, I think I felt a particularly sharp pang because it came so soon after the passing of James Gandolfini. I hadn’t thought of it before, but with Gandolfini still fresh in my mind, when I heard about Farina’s …
A week after James Gandolfini died, we lost another Jersey boy: novelist, short story writer, film and TV screenwriter Richard Matheson. His was not as well-known a name to the general public as Gandolfini’s, certainly, and perhaps only familiar to sci fi and fantasy fans, the genres within which he scored some of his most …
James Gandolfini died yesterday of an apparent heart attack, and in the short space of time since his passing, enough has been said about this intimidating-looking actor many called, in reality, “a gentle giant,” that there’s little I can add without seeming lamely repetitive. Parts large and small, before The Sopranos and after, will always …
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Written by Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daley Directed by Don Scardino USA, 2013 A high concept comedy of the kind Will Ferrell has most been associated with in the last decade, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone assembles an appealing cast for its familiar story and character beats, here applied to …
Killing Them Softly Written for the screen and directed by Andrew Dominik USA, 2012 Set against the backdrop of the 2008 US election, chunks of both major parties’ campaign rhetoric, as well as that of former President Bush, permeate select scenes of Killing Them Softly via background radios and televisions, entering like tumbleweeds rolling across …
