FOLLOWING FILMS

Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s adaptation of “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn’s novel “Dark Places” takes its titular theme to the hilt, in a film that is as its title suggests unrelentingly dreary. Not that it has much of a choice given the subject matter. A gothic Americana mystery, “Dark Places” spans two timelines as it unravels the truth behind one horrific crime. In the present, Libby Day (Charlize Theron) is a traumatized adult shuffling aimlessly through life. Nearly 30 years since her mother and sisters were murdered and her brother was convicted as their killer, the leader of a sort of underground crime “fan club" approaches her. At first they make a deal to pick her brain about what happened and then they drop a bombshell. They believe her brother is innocent and they want her help to prove it. From here the movie registers as a whodunit, unwinding all of the lurid details that led up to the awful conclusion with the promise of uncovering the real perpetrator....

When it comes to describing director John Crowley’s adaptation of “Brooklyn” one word rapidly comes to mind: poignant. There are scores of movies that have told stories about coming-of-age in fish-out-of-water circumstances with a love triangle thrown in for good measure. What sets “Brooklyn” apart from them is how quickly it manages to draw you in with its bursts of levity and shots of sorrow. Anchoring the whiplash of emotions is actress Saoirse Ronan, who demonstrates an elegant breadth as the film’s leading lady. Based on Colm Toibin’s novel of the same name, “Brooklyn” follows Eilis Lacey (Ronan), a young Irishwoman whose sister has arranged for her to immigrate to America. Leaving her family, friends and everything else she’s ever known behind in her small town to begin a solitary chapter in a strange place an ocean away. It's worth noting that throughout the course of the movie, she never considers bringing her family to live with her. For Eilis, it's eithe...

Cheating is not romantic. If you agree with that premise, “The Choice” will more than likely leave you colder than a snowman in Antarctica. Since it is at the crux of Nicholas Sparks’ latest drama about people falling in love with each other and overcoming incredible odds to be together, there is little ground to invest in with his latest star-crossed pairing. Based on the novel of the same name, comes the tale of how Gabby (Teresa Palmer), a studious and slightly uptight aspiring doctor falls for her laid back next-door-neighbor Travis (Benjamin Walker), a veterinarian with country sass to spare. Given that a lot of movie romances begin with its protagonists loathing one another in seething contempt before falling devotedly in love, “The Choice” doesn’t offer its audience a lot of surprises in the dynamic of how its lovers connect. The thing is, it’s clear from the onset all of their shared bluster is thinly veiled flirtation and nothing more. The problem “The Choice” fa...

On a technical level, Denis Villeneuve’s cagey thriller is a mesmeric spectacle of near perfection. Taut with a laser precision and deafening focus, “Sicario” revolves around the work of a government task force, policing the war on drugs at the U.S./Mexico border and their reluctant new recruit Kate Macer (Emily Blunt). Suspicious from the start, Kate's fears grow more and more intense as she’s plunged into legally questionable waters that challenge her idealism to its very core. Left to question the black, white and grey area where law enforcement collides with the criminal element, she is forced to wrestle with the age old conundrum of whether the “end justifies the means”. Kate’s odyssey into the tangled web of police politics proves a harrowing ride that exacts more questions than it does answers. Enticing its audience to inquiry about what they witness as much as its protagonist does. As intense and immersive as “Sicario” can be, it finds trouble with a narrative that reve...

Director Clint Eastwood’s provocative adaptation of Chris Kyle’s memoir is an absorbing look into the life of a serviceman and the toll his work and departure takes on his family. Bradley Cooper plays Chris Kyle, the most lethal marksman in U.S. military history. A highly publicized angle to this story, it turns out to be a rather small part of the overall puzzle. What Eastwood and screenwriter Jason Hall choose to focus on instead is the impact these battles have on his personal life. Presented from a single-person viewpoint its commentary is shared with a blunt candor. You can’t pull many punches with this material, it is in-your-face aggressive and it stirs a reaction that stays long after the credits roll. What it is has to say is at times chilling and infinitely haunting. The opening scene goes for the jugular as Kyle (Cooper) stares down the sights of his rifle to the unthinkable. Through flashbacks we learn how he arrived at this moment. He’s raised in a discipline...

Crazy, kooky and ferociously goofy, Johnny Depp’s latest is a send-up to the 70’s caper movies and the genre that parodied them. Striking a similar if distant cord to “The Pink Panther”, “Mortdecai” features a bungling lead character whose charm lies in being larger than life. The situations are over the top, the characters zany to the hilt and the laughs more frequent than anticipated. A titled art dealer living beyond his means, Lord Charlie Mortdecai (Depp) is recruited to track down a stolen painting for MI5. His money troubles at the forefront of his travails, he simultaneously juggles his disgruntled wife Johanna (Gwyneth Paltrow) and the Inspector in charge of the investigation who was Mortdecai’s college schoolmate and a romantic rival for Johanna’s affections. The storyline feels a bit dated and for viewers who haven’t watched a steady diet of the aforementioned movies, the jokes can be too insular to achieve their desired effect. There are some running gags that ...

In the midst of her arduous journey, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) makes her entrance onto the screen in an opening scene that sums up the nearly 2 hours to come. Startlingly painful and cringe inducing, she must endure an agonizing side effect of her walkabout. Her screams of frustration zip the movie to a flashback, whisking the narrative back to where her voyage began. It is the first in a long series of garbled recollections that act as the jagged little puzzle pieces, scrapped together in the hopes of explaining why Strayed made the decision to go on a very unpleasant 1,100-mile trek. Cheryl has had a rough go in life and empathy for her plight is easy to come by. Her father was an abusive alcoholic who the family has to eventually flee from him. Her lighthouse is her loving single-mom Bobbi (Laura Dern) who receives no mercy at life’s cruel hand. Tragedy strikes when a 45-year old Bobbi is diagnosed with cancer and Cheryl’s world is consequently ripped apart. Foll...

Love, madness and a mystery consume a newlywed couple who’ve embarked on their honeymoon at a lakeside cabin in the woods. What begins as a picturesque excursion for Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway) soon descends into a nightmare when the new bride disappears in the middle of the night. After a tense search, she is discovered in the woods by her groom; nude, bruised and incoherent. He is immediately alarmed and when he questions her over what has happened she rebuffs his curiosity, initially blaming it on an episode of sleepwalking. It’s an explanation that seems adequate until her behavior becomes increasingly erratic and despondent. Her physical condition rapidly deteriorates and the question of what ails her, casts a dark specter over their celebratory trip and the future of their marriage. Bea and Paul have an idyllic relationship: playful, caring and lighthearted. First-time director Leigh Janiak spends most of the film’s opening getting viewers to invest in t...

Underneath the dim lights of a nocturnal Los Angeles, a hollow eyed creature claws out of the ether. He is a predator equipped with cunning, ambition and a chillingly calm demeanor. He is Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a driven man whose most dangerous weapon is his mind and it might be coming unhinged. Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut is a thrilling character study that plunges viewers into the seedy underworld of television journalism alongside an engrossingly strange character. Bloom is looking to make a sizeable income and when he follows police cruisers to the scene of an accident, he sets his sights on a promising new career opportunity. With his curiosity peeked by what he witnesses, he begins asking questions and learns about “nightcrawling”, the business of capturing video footage of horrific crime or accident scenes, to sell to television stations for airing on the news. There is a competitive angle to it and Bloom has his eyes set on dominating the field, which is b...

A list of ten films that are currently streaming on Netflix. You may have seen some, most or all of these films but they are all ones that every cinefile should see.  12 Angry Men   A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court. Director: Sidney Lumet Writer: Reginald Rose (story) Stars: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam Anatomy Of A Murder  In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case? Director: Otto Preminger Writers: Wendell Mayes (screenplay), John D. Voelker(based on the novel by) Stars: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara A mysterious outsider's quiet life is turned upside down when he returns to his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance. Proving himself an amateur assassin, he...