Automata ★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Gabe Ibáñez Millennium Entertainment (Official Site) 110 Minutes In Theaters October 10, 2014 (Limited) – It’s the year 2044, and thanks to a series of devastating solar storms, the world’s population has been slashed to only 22 million, most of whom are confined to the sunbaked shell of a former…
The Two Faces of January ★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Hossein Amini Magnolia Pictures (Official Site) 96 Minutes In Theaters September 26, 2014 (Limited) – Rydal (Oscar Isaac) is a young American ex-pat in Greece, a part-time tour guide and full-time grifter who finds himself intrigued by a couple vacationing on the island. Chester MacFarland (Viggo…
Former boxer turned police officer turned private eye, Spenser — no first names please, he’s got an air of mystery to maintain — has just lost a client, a former hooker who was shot by the henchmen of the gangster trying to bring her back into his fold. Hired the next day to find the…
Honeymoon ★★★½ / ★★★★★ Director: Leigh Janiak Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing (Official Site) 87 Minutes In Theaters September 12, 2014 (Limited) – “Amongst all the savage beasts, none is found so harmful as woman.” John Chrysostom, as quoted in The Bridal Bed (Joseph Braddock, 1961) Newlyweds Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway), suffering from…
This is my They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They 1000 Greatest Films update, the last of the dull end-of-summer update posts for SBBN. I haven’t seen nearly as many of the films on my TSPTD1K list (or the supplemental Scorsese and IMDb lists) as I’ve wanted for various reasons, mostly because I’ve been spending a lot…
A few notes about SBBN that I’ve been putting off until there’s enough for one big post that’s easier to skip: * Recently, the blog has had a couple of periods of downtime due to some glitches which no one at my webhost can identify. My theory is that the most recent WordPress updates aren’t…
In 1931, producer Samuel Goldwyn was in a real bind. His film The Unholy Garden had been a complete disaster from start to finish, enraging Ronald Colman, Goldwyn Pictures’ star actor, who never quite got over having been contractually forced to appear in the film. A horrifying production, terrible reviews and even worse box office…
Some sad and frustrating news: According to Michael Blake, Universal plans to tear down the historic Stage 28. Inside Universal has more about the closure, and the rumor that the demolition is to make way for more theme part attractions. There’s a petition to save the stage here, already at 1,400 signatures as of this…
Are You Here ★★☆☆☆ Director: Matthew Weiner Millennium Entertainment 113 Minutes In Theaters August 22, 2014 (Limited) and on DVD September 30, 2014 – Quirky comedy Are You Here (2013) is a tale of the most bourgeois of bromances, two pals in a bizarre, yet strangely dull, codependent relationship. This is the first feature-length outing…
Valerie (Geena Davis) is a gorgeous beautician living in the San Fernando Valley with her doctor fiance Ted (Charles Rocket). For reasons never explained — his girlfriend is Geena Davis, for cryin’ out loud — Ted likes to boff other women, thus neglects Valerie in the bedroom and can’t get too worked up for their…