Articles Tagged “Drama”
The Debt Trailer
Popscorn fave, Sam Worthington, stars in a new thriller, The Debt, out this December. The film surrounds three Israeli Moussad agents from the ’60s, and smacks just a touch of 2005′s Munich. (Ciarán Hinds actually stars in both films, though he’s not so believable as the older version of Worthington’s character.) Judging from the first trailer, The Debt seems a pretty taught story with a great cast, but otherwise feels run-of-the-mill.
The Greatest
It’s just too easy. When a film is titled The Greatest and it’s not the greatest, it’s just too tempting to make wordplay of it. But I’ll try to resist.
The Eclipse
Is The Eclipse a ghost story? Not completely. Will it haunt you? Absolutely.
Chloe
It’s simply amazing how wonderfully director Atom Egoyan squanders his incredible cast in his latest film, Chloe. He manages to take a sexual thriller like Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction and turn it into Ishtar.
Helena from the Wedding at SXSW
For a film that has such little action and movement, Helena from the Wedding is surprisingly captivating and in the most subtle of ways. Director Joseph Infantolino leverages all the drama of an extended stare and implications of the classic, troubled exchange between couples: “You OK? I’m fine.” Surrounding three-and-half couples that spend a New Years Eve in a snowy cabin, Helena packs an impressive spectrum of relationship conditions — newly weds, divorce, pregnancy, cheating, spousal inequality, wandering eyes — into the small vacation home. With the cold backdrop and dreary domestic scenarios, Helena may not be a particularly bright yarn, but it’s intensely genuine and emotionally vibrant.
Leaves of Grass at SXSW
Ed Norton takes a note from likes of Michael Cera (Youth in Revolt) and Sam Rockwell (Moon) in his new film, Leaves of Grass, playing the opposites side of the same coin — Billy, the academic, and his brother Brady, the stoner. The film, directed by Tim Blake Nelson, surrounds the Kincaid twins (again, both played by Norton) and the dark shenanigans that ensue when the hippie half tricks the other into returning to their small hometown of Oklahoma. If you’re a fan of Norton, Grass may be the perfect drug. The film is very much character-driven, and delivers two different helpings of Norton flavor. Beyond the stimulating textures of Billy and Brady, however, the plot is mostly mellow with occasional hits of complexity and violence.
Ghost Writer
There are so many mysteries on the island that it feels like you’re never going to get any answers. Is there a safe way off? Can the others be trusted? And are dead people really trying to speak to the living? Just when your head starts to spin, you remember that Ewan McGregor is a writer, not a detective, and you’re watching The Ghost Writer, not Shutter Island. Or “Lost.”
