Search Results For: Ellen Page
Ellen Page has a new film Touchy Feely (opening in select theatres on Friday 9/6 & already available On Demand). So this week we turn our spotlight on Oscar-nominated actress Ellen Page! Enter our contest for your chance to win a DVD starring Ellen Page: Juno The East Whip It Click HERE to enter […]
My Days of Mercy is a mixed genre film directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer and written by Joe Barton about Lucy’s (Ellen Page) struggles to deal with her father’s situation on death row. While My Days of Mercy presented an extremely original plot and contained a lot of great moments, it, unfortunately, failed to amount to […]
My Days of Mercy is a mixed genre film directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer and written by Joe Barton about Lucy’s (Ellen Page) struggles to deal with her father’s situation on death row. While My Days of Mercy presented an extremely original plot and contained a lot of great moments, it, unfortunately, failed to amount to […]
Perfectly told tale of a French boy who is sent to a group home after his mother dies. Screenplay by award-winning filmmaker Céline Sciamma, best-known for her 2014 film Bande de filles (called Girlhood in English although Girl Gang would be a better translation), is based on Gilles Paris’ 2002 novel Autobiographie d’une Courgette. Animated with dazzling style and state […]
From writer-director Patricia Rozema, Into the Forest is a story of sisters struggling to survive in – pause for suspense – the forest. Set in the near future, sisters “Nell” (Ellen Page) and “Eva” (Evan Rachel Wood) live in a society that has become increasingly reliant on electricity for basic survival. When an unidentified force […]
Lu and her boyfriend Nico are living out of their van enjoying the thrills of life without attachments. But Lu’s life takes a drastic turn when Nico disappears, and she kidnaps a wealthy housewife’s toddler. Loosely based on writer/director Sîan Heder’s own experiences, Tallulah is the quirky tale of an independent vagabond who learns the […]
Brit Marling stars as a former FBI agent who now works for a private contractor who provides security services for prominent global corporations. In the opening moments of The East, a shadowy group of radical environmentalists calling themselves “The East” attacks the home of an oil company CEO, unleashing a Biblical deluge of “sludge for […]
In 2005, Shaohong Li directed the coming-of-age drama Stolen Life (Sheng Si Jie), starring Xun Zhou and Jun Wu. The film won the Best Narrative Feature category at Tribeca Film Festival and is a sobering presentation of how drastically life can change when an unexpected child comes along. KIZJ (3/5)
“As Dolly would say, ‘It’s hard being a diamond in a rhinestone world,’” Willowdean Dixon’s Aunt Lucy tells her in the opening sequence of Dumplin’. The popular Netflix feature directed by Anne Fletcher, written by Kristin Hahn and starring Danielle Macdonald is exactly that – a diamond in a world of rhinestone movies that try and fail to preach body positivity. Adapted from the novel by Julie Murphy, Dumplin’ is an inspiring comedy for bigger girls everywhere, who haven’t really had a protagonist they can count on – until now. (BKP: 4/5)
In Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald, J.K. Rowling uses her time turner to take us back to the 1920s Wizarding World, when Dumbledore (Jude Law) was still just a professor, long before the names Riddle and Potter appeared on his radar, let alone in his Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The Ministry of […]
Director Paige Goldberg Tolmach provides a clear overview of the case that rattled her alma-mater, Porter-Gaud, but fails to add anything new to the twenty-year-old narrative or deliver on promises of an examination of the psychological toll the case has had on the alumni and community. (EML: 3.5/5)
Director Jennifer M. Kroot dives deep into the mind and past of Armistead Maupin in this gripping and revealing documentary. The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin reveals the man behind the pen, and you won’t want to miss it. (LMB: 4.5/5)
Filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini throw a lot of love–and an excellent cast–at Eleanor Henderson’s novel Ten Thousand Saints, but success eludes them. Unfortunately, their adaptation is a bit of a “paint by numbers” exercise that never manages to fully engage. (JLH: 3/5) Review by Managing Editor Jan Lisa Huttner (with additional two cents […]
Full Title = Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor Two Interns–one a fresh faced newby and the other an Algerian immigrant–test the limits of patient care from inside the hierarchy of a beleagured French public hospital. Terrific performances by Vincent Lacoste and Reda Kateb. Excellent, low-key direction by Thomas Lilti who collaborated with a screenwriting team consisting of Pierre […]
Testament of Youth, based on a memoir of the same name, follows a strong young woman bound for Oxford, who abandons her studies to become a nurse in the First World War. The story is one of love and loss, and Alicia Vikander is absolutely stunning as “Vera Brittain.” Directed by James Kent. Screenplay by Juliette Towhidi. […]
Weighing in across the generations: Our respect for Oscar-winning screenwriter & beloved actress Emma Thompson is so great that we have written two review of her new film Effie Gray. Spoiler Alert: WE BOTH LOVE IT! Click HERE for Brigid’s review. Jan’s review (with a “Real-to-Reel” bonus section) is below. ************************* Lovingly-crafted new BioPic stars Dakota […]
Lovingly-crafted new BioPic stars Dakota Fanning as yet another “notorious” 19th Century woman heretofore robbed by history of her own POV. Credit the sumptuous visuals to director Richard Laxton, but the essence of Effie Gray is in the screenplay by Emma Thompson, who also cast herself in the critical role of mentor. (JLH 4/5) ************************* On […]
Deepa Mehta’s radiant film Midnight’s Children is based on a sprawling novel by Salman Rushdie, and Rushdie (although never seen on screen) contributes the voice-over narration of the main character “Saleem Sinai.” This is a huge historical epic spanning the years from 1917 all the way to 1977, years in which the Asian subcontinent transformed […]
Dina Zvi-Riklis’s new film The Fifth Heaven is set in Palestine at the close of World War II. Jewish residents, terrified by the Nazi advance across Europe and North Africa, have been giving their all to their British protectors for years, but now that the defeat of the Third Reich appears imminent, their thoughts turn […]
THIS JUST IN: Thanks to Melissa Silverstein, “Blue Oscar 2012” is now live on IndieWIRE’s Women & Hollywood blog 🙂 Well, it’s happened once again… Starting with a list of more than 600 films released in the USA in 2011 (including many excellent films written &/or directed by women), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS aka […]
An excellent film on an extremely important subject is going down & deperately needs YOUR help at the Box Office. Please consult this list & if The Whistleblower is playing anywhere near you, please, please try to see it this weekend! Click HERE to read our interview with director Larysa Kondracki on FF2. This is our […]
The Lovely Bones is the story of a teenager named Susie who is brutally murdered by an innocuous-looking neighbor. While Mr. Harvey fastidiously covers his tracks, Susie is trapped in a parallel universe called the Inbetween (not yet Heaven but no longer Earth), where she watches as her loved ones struggle to go on living […]
News flash – houses don’t clean themselves! Although Sunshine Cleaning resembles 2007 Oscar-winner Little Miss Sunshine in several superficial ways, don’t let the coincidental “sunshine” reference blind you. Writer Megan Holley built her original screenplay around a story she heard eight years ago on National Public Radio—two women describing the trials and tribulations of running […]
Click here to download Sun 9/21 eVite with RSVP Instructions. If you live in Metro Chicago, then you are invited to a reception honoring Deborah Kampmeier’s controversial new film HOUNDDOG this Sunday (9/21) @ 5 PM. Reception immediately follows the 3:10 screening of HOUNDDOG at the AMC Pipers Alley Theatre (1608 N Wells—corner of Wells […]
New adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel “The Dying Animal” (helmed by Isbale Coixet & scripted by Nicholas Meyer) succeeds in capturing the author’s humanity. Excellent cast is headlined by Ben Kinsley as “David Kepesh” (a serial seducer who becomes obsessed with a beautiful young woman) and Penelope Cruz as “Consuela” (someone longing for safe harbor after […]
New adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel The Dying Animal succeeds in capturing the author’s humanity. Excellent cast is headlined by Ben Kingsley as “David Kepesh” (a serial seducer who becomes obsessed with a beautiful young woman) and Penelope Cruz as “Consuela” (someone longing for safe harbor after disappointments of her own). Dennis Hopper is cast […]
Despite all the nasty comments, negative reviews, & ugly imagery (see above), the four SEX AND THE CITY gal pals surprised prognosticators & movie mavens by surging to the top spot in last weekend’s box office contest (based on numbers released today). Is this important? You bet! The films “coming soon” to YOUR multiplex […]