Author: Ann Hornaday
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Movie review: ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’ revisits actress Gloria Grahame at the end of her life
Starring Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Annette Bening; directed by Paul McGuigan; 106 minutes; R for strong language, some sexual material and brief nudity. “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool” is based on a book of the same name, a memoir by Peter Turner about his love affair with actress Gloria Grahame when he was an…
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Movie review: In ‘Hostiles,’ an ambitious old-school Western, Christian Bale seems to channel Clint Eastwood
Starring Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Scott Shepherd, Wes Studi; directed by Scott Cooper; 127 minutes; R for strong violence and crude language. Christian Bale delivers a tough, engulfing performance in “Hostiles,” a rich Western in which writer-director Scott Cooper marshals old-school wide-screen classicism for boldly revisionist themes. This ambitious demonstration reminds viewers mourning the retirement…
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Movie review: ‘Phantom Thread’: A sensuous story about the male gaze and a muse who subverts it
Daniel Day-Lewis resembles an Easter Island sculpture crossed with a handsomely groomed Adonis in “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s ode to extravagance, texture, tyrannical auteurism and its most ingenious subversions. Day-Lewis plays Reynolds Woodcock, a sought-after dress designer in 1950s London whose clients – mostly wealthy matrons – see Woodcock’s creations less as pretty dresses…
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Criticism aside, this Star Wars had force
It took only two weeks and change for “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” to become the highest-grossing movie of 2017, with the latest installment of the 40-year-old action-adventure serial now having earned more than half a billion dollars at the box office. The success of “The Last Jedi” isn’t surprising, but in this case it’s…
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Movie review: ‘Darkest Hour’ a soaring portrayal of Winston Churchill on the eve of Dunkirk
Until this year, the finest clip about Dunkirk was a sequence of the World War II evacuation, filmed in one 5-minute take for “Atonement,” directed by Joe Wright. Now Wright brings a full-fledged Dunkirk film. “Darkest Hour” is receiving awards chatter for Gary Oldman’s portrayal of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Wright brings sumptuous, jewel-box…
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Movie review: ‘The Shape of Water’ is a ’50s-style creature feature as a modern-day allegory
“The Shape of Water” plunges into a mossy, aquamarine world of dreams and taboo desires, a wistful fable. This allegory by groundbreaking filmmaker Guillermo del Toro bears his hallmarks, from monsters and surreal environments to tender romance. It’s an endearing, haunting film from an artist who bends even the hoariest tropes to his deeply humanistic…
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Best movies of 2017: ‘Mudbound’ is a quintessentially American classic
Our film culture’s health might best be described in terms of balance: Whereas the industry as a whole in 2017 was kept afloat by family films, superheroes and horror, critics and fans alike are searching for excellence across a wide spectrum of genres and target audiences. As gratifying as it was that “Wonder Woman” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming”…
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Review: ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ brings the band back together, with love
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi” unspools like a one-movie binge watch, a lively if overlong and busily plotted second chapter to the latest “Star Wars” trilogy that advances the story and deepens its characters with a combination of irreverent humor and worshipful love for the original text. Written and directed by Rian Johnson (“Looper”), this…
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Movie review: ‘Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri’ is a vigilante comedy for our age
Starring Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell; directed by Martin McDonagh; 115 minutes; R for violence, strong language throughout and some sexual references. For an avatar of our current cultural appetite for accountability, truth-telling and radical moral reckoning, we couldn’t do better than Mildred Hayes, a grieving mother seeking justice and closure in “Three Billboards…
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Comedies overdue to get major awards consideration
Awards season wouldn’t be complete without the requisite number of controversies, and it got an early one last month when Universal announced it will submit the thriller “Get Out” for a Golden Globe in the comedy category. The film’s writer-director, Jordan Peele, immediately communicated his disappointment, tweeting, “‘Get Out’ is a documentary.” Although he later…