Jessica chastain

Ultra-boring with an infuriatingly misleading advertising campaign, ‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ will likely be one of the most disappointing action films of the year.

‘Crimson Peak’ is an ambitious miscalculation that should have waited for the script to catch up with the visuals.

Director Ridley Scott shows amazing restraint as he scales back the pyrotechnics and emphasizes human ingenuity in ‘The Martian.’

Plus, Jessica Chastain adds a comedy to her upcoming slate, and Robert Rodriguez lines up his next project.

A Most Violent Year Written and directed by J.C. Chandor USA, 2014 A desperate man has no lengths that he won’t go to protect what is his. Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) owns a large stake of the heating oil trade in New York City, but he is leveraged to the hilt. A prime piece of real …

Interstellar begins at an indeterminate point in Earth’s future, when blight and drought are pushing humanity to the breaking point. “This world is a treasure, but it’s been telling us to leave for a long time now,” laments engineer-turned-farmer, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey). He’s a practical man who set aside dreams of space travel in order to provide for his family, and yet his powerful intellect keeps him sneaking glances skyward. When he and his precocious daughter, Murph (Mackenzie Foy), decipher mysterious signals directing them to random GPS coordinates, Cooper is only too eager to indulge his curiosity.

I really jibe with what Interstellar is trying to accomplish. I want big budget films to aim intellectually and emotionally high. I agree with most of its messages and themes. I am the choir it is preaching to. Which makes it all the more disappointing that the movie is, in the most charitable view, only haphazardly successful. There are aspects to love about the movie — it’s the best-looking blockbuster in years, and there are some truly enrapturing moments. but that’s scattered among strings of misaimed beats across a punishing, nearly three-hour runtime.

The New York Film Festival starts today, and with it critics and industry members will get their first look at Gone Girl and Inherent Vice, leaving only a few studio tent poles remaining throughout the fall. They’ll also get a renewed look at Mr. Turner, Foxcatcher, and Birdman, so expect those to be back in …

Coming off the acclaim at Toronto for two films, the Cannes darling Mommy and his starring vehicle Elephant Song, actor and filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s next film will mark his English language debut. Joining his cast is none other than Jessica Chastain, herself having risen to prominence over the past few years, with her 2011 features …

Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Director of Photography Greig Fraser USA, 2012 The first 30 seconds of Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012) take place in darkness, with only brief time stamp and audio of some of the people who suffered on that day in September 2001. It’s a device meant to frame …

Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal USA, 2012 This years’ Academy Awards are surprisingly history-heavy. Lincoln and Argo are both period pieces telling true stories of widely-recognised and declassified events respectively; whilst Django Unchained is a very Tarantino take on Southern slavery-era America. Zero Dark Thirty is the most historically …

Earlier in the week, we brought you the first part of a Special Oscar edition of Between Two Ferns, the offbeat interview show hosted by comedian Zach Galifianakis. Today we bring you part two, which sees Galifianakis interview Jessica Chastain, Sally Field, “Daniel Day-Lewis”, and Bradley Cooper. **** (Source: Funny Or Die)

Now that we are nearing the big awards of the season, it is time to revisit the nominations and predictions for the 2013 BAFTAs.  Part 2 will cover the following categories: (see part one here) Best Film Best British Film Leading Actor Leading Actress Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress Best Director The EE BAFTA …

Mama Directed by Andy Muschietti Written by Neil Cross, Andy Muschietti, and Barbara Muschietti Spain and Canada, 2013 How far do big names get a small movie? That is the question at the core of Mama, a new horror film that wouldn’t exist were it not for executive producer Guillermo del Toro and leading lady/current …

Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal U.S.A., 2012 The fascinating directing and screenwriting duo of Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal have consciously taken an emotionally and intellectually provocative route in their collective filmmaking career in the past few years. Their interest with regards to telling rich, compelling stories on the …

Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal USA, 2012 So little in this world is tangibly right or wrong that when an opportunity to channel our innate desire to see good triumph over evil comes along, we grab at it with all our strength. Such a chance arose in the aftermath …

Lawless Written by Nick Cave Directed by John Hillcoat USA, 2012 Director John Hillcoat and musician Nick Cave have collaborated numerous times since the late 1980s, from Cave having starred in Ghosts… of the Civil Dead to composing Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Lawless marks their second collaboration involving Cave as screenwriter, following …

Lawless Directed John Hillcoat Written by Nick Cave U.S.A., 2012 In 2006, the creative filmmaking duo of John Hillcoat, director, and Nick Cave, screenwriter, floored many a serious movie goer with their brutal, cold, austere period piece The Proposition. Set in the turn of the 20th century, the emotionally and graphically violent piece had Australian …

Lawless Written by Nick Cave Directed by John Hillcoat USA, 2012 Director John Hillcoat and musician Nick Cave have collaborated numerous times since the late 1980s, from Cave having starred in Ghosts… of the Civil Dead to composing Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Lawless marks their second collaboration involving Cave as screenwriter, following …

Acting and directing categories  during awards seasons are always the hardest to determine. Who to choose and what for film is a constant battle, not to mention who deserves to be nominated. Between the veteran nominees (Clooney, Streep, Scorcese) to newbies in the awards season (Fassbender, Refn and Oldman (!)), let’s see who deserves a …

Coriolanus Written by John Logan Directed by Ralph Fiennes UK, 2011 Many of the more interesting Shakespeare adaptations in film history are those that tend to be furthest removed from the stage tradition of the plays; changing the settings and eras, applying different preoccupations, and even dispensing with the writer’s prose altogether in some cases. …

Though time will only tell if Baz Luhrmann is the right filmmaker to tackle The Great Gatsby, I remain a skeptic. The material may suggest a certain grandiosity that Luhrmann has proved to be able to bring to life but the story remains fundamentally simple and down to earth. The novel is highly critical of …

The Debt Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, and Peter Straughn, based on the film Ha-Hov Directed by John Madden USA, 2010 The Nazis are by far the most durable, malleable historical villains in cinematic history. Their status as a universally reviled symbol of xenophobic hatred and cruelty gives filmmakers carte blanche to dispatch them …