With Election Day here at last, we can finally set aside some time from the day to actually vote. When it’s all said and done, go back home and reflect with some of these better politically-themed films and cartoons. The Candidate Bill McKay (Robert Redford) has no hope of winning the U.S. Senate seat for …
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo USA, 2014 There is an almost brutal efficiency present in each of the films encompassing the now-vast Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rare is the entry in this mini-canon with a striking level of personal style or brio; though …
The Oscar-nominated director and writer of last year’s potent Wall Steet drama Margin Call has circumnavigated the perils of sophomore filmmaking with All Is Lost. This is J.C. Chandor’s remarkable nautical thriller, plunging its audience into a whirlpool nightmare scenario. In a solo role, Robert Redford is a nameless figure, a stoic seaman sailing through the Pacific roughly 1,700 miles from civilisation before being jolted awake after an abandoned cargo container ruptures a yawning gape in his modest single-berth schooner.
It was only after half of Lurhmann’s Gatsby that I finally understood just how hard it is to make a film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. Fitzgerald had such a disdain for his time that there isn’t a single character in The Great Gatsby that you are supposed to like. However, as author John Green said …
Casting sometimes is fate and destiny more than skill and talent, from a director’s point of view. – Steven Spielberg Ah, the joys of hindsight, such as they are. It is so easy to look back on what came about from the small decisions coming together to form an unforgettable whole, and laugh at those …
Jeremiah Johnson Directed by Sydney Pollack Written by Edward Anhalt and John Milius 1972, The Western, at its creative and commercial peak – the late 1960s-early 1970s – proved itself an astoundingly pliable genre. It could be molded to deal with topical subject matter like racism (Skin Game, 1971), feminism (The Ballad of Josie, 1967), …