I will mark The Painted Veil as the best movie I may have *never* seen. A friend and I talked about how much we each love (500 Days) of Summer, and she said I needed to see The Painted Veil, her second favorite movie. She and I have very similar tastes in pop culture, so I told her I would give it a chance. I remember seeing the preview back in 2006 and thinking it was just another typical romantic period piece that I would probably find boring. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This movie was incredible, and I’m so grateful my friend and I had the conversation we had, and she encouraged me to see it.
Continue reading The Painted Veil (2006)
Category Archives: Drama
Elysium (2013)
The best summer movie of 2013? I’m divided between World War Z and Elysium. Let me preface this by saying I have seen fewer movies in the theater this summer than in any summer in recent memory, but that was by choice, not the options for movies. I’ve been concentrating on other writing avenues and have taken a break from my blog. I’ve seen a few movies this summer that I probably will not review, but I’m committed to reviewing movies that will end up in my end-of-year top 10. Even with all the amazing movies this fall, I don’t see a scenario where Elysium or World War Z finish outside the top 10. I’ll venture to say they will finish in the top five.
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Mud (2013)
Back in 1996, adaptations from John Grisham novels were the big thing. Tom Cruise starred in The Firm. Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts starred in The Pelican Brief. Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones starred in The Client. All were critically acclaimed and performed exceptionally well at the box office. A Time To Kill was Grisham’s first novel and the next the fourth to be adapted for film. Arguably, it is Grisham’s best novel, and the buzz surrounding the film was tremendous. A host of Hollywood A-listers wanted the lead role of Jack Brigance. The question was who would get the lead in the movie that also starred Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Spacey. There was a lot of head-shaking when the lead part went to a little-known actor named Matthew McConaughey (Frailty, Amistad). McConaughey nailed the role, and the movie was critically acclaimed and earned over $100 million domestically. The film put McConaughey on the map, and many considered the part of Jack Brigance the role he was born to play.
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Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)
Celeste and Jesse Forever is a fantastic little movie paused on a completely implausible concept: that you can remain best friends with the love of your life after a failed relationship. The movie was a difficult sell. While it hit with the critics (70% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), it missed with audiences (just $3 million at the box office). The movie stars two of Hollywood’s funniest young actors (Andy Samberg – Saturday Night Live and Rashida Jones – NBC’s Parks and Recreation) who have worked so hard on the small screen that now they are household names. This both helped and hurt the movie. When we see each name, we think comedy, comedy, comedy. So when we see them in a movie like Celeste and Jesse Forever that has as much drama as it does comedy, we aren’t sure what to think.
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The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)
The Place Beyond the Pines is a place you do not need to visit anytime in the near future. Director Derek Cianfrance and Ryan Gosling (Drive, Half-Nelson) team up for the first time since the 2010 instant classic Blue Valentine. I can honestly say that they recaptured their magic for the first third of this movie, but ***spoiler alert***then Cianfrance went and killed off Gosling. After that, this movie tail-spun into the ground. The Place Beyond the Pines is told in three stories (all roughly 45-55 minutes). In this review, I’m going to spoil everything. So either you’ll stop reading now and see the movie on your own, or you’ll heed my advice and read this post instead of seeing this wreck of a film.
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