Articles tagged "ralph fiennes"

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview Feature

Summer of Same: July 2009

by Bill Gibron

[29.Apr.09] :. In a rare attempt at novelty, July jets along with only Harry Potter and the Ice Age crew sampling continuing series spoils. The rest provide unknown pleasures.

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview

News

‘The Reader’ is more nuanced than its detractors give it credit for being

by Bruce Dancis [McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)]

[13.Apr.09] :. Reviewing “The Reader” in The New Yorker last December, Anthony Lane described the film as “pernicious” and “a low-grade musing on atrocity, garnished with erotic...

PopWire

News

How Kate Winslet outdid herself to garner an Oscar nomination

by Mark Caro [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[12.Feb.09] :. Kate Winslet always was going to land a best actress Oscar nomination this year. That was understood. Otherwise, Vanity Fair wouldn’t have put her on the cover alongside the quote, “Do I...

PopWire

News

Oscars ignore ‘The Dark Knight,’ except for Ledger nomination

by Colin Covert [Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (MCT)]

[23.Jan.09] :. It was a dark day for “The Dark Knight” as the 81st annual Oscar nominations, announced Thursday, snubbed the most popular film since “Titanic.” Christopher Nolan’s...

PopWire

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008 Feature

Outside the Lines - The Top 20 International/Indie Films of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[15.Jan.09] :. With many indie/international films receiving more and more mainstream approval from unfamiliar audiences, many of the titles here could be considered part of the overall 2008 Best Of. But their individuality and multicultural appeal keep them a quality concept apart.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008 Feature

Iconic - The Top 20 Male Performances of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[14.Jan.09] :. Like the gladiators of old, 2008 resembles a battle of formidable acting gods, especially when looking over the 20 choices presented below. Indeed, if anything, choosing a winner requires more of a leap of faith than any amount of critical skill - they all were that good.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008

Tough and Tender - The Top 20 Female Performances of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[14.Jan.09] :. Twenty talented ladies, 20 performances worthy of multiple little gold men. Unfortunately, as in all years, someone has to come out on top. But after looking over this impressive list, picking the preeminent turn of 2008 seems almost impossible.

Shameful Exposure

by Chris Barsanti

[11.Dec.08] :. A fiery Kate Winslet saves morality tale in 'The Reader' while a similarly powerful Meryl Streep can't do the same for the overly certain 'Doubt'.

Unclear Motives Make this ‘Reader’ Unrewarding

by Bill Gibron

[11.Dec.08] :. When you turn a book into a movie, context is usually the first creative facet to be sacrificed. Film is so obsessed with movement and plotting and situational conflict that, items such as...

The Reader

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Dec.08] :. Most obviously, Hannah is unfathomable, the feminine object Michael must figure out and overcome in order to "become a man."

Holo-Cost

by Bill Gibron

[9.Dec.08] :. All across the web this past week, it’s been the subject of much metaphysical ink. As awards season slowly winds down, Hollywood is dragging out the proverbial heavy hitters, and oddly enough,...

The Annihilating Feminine: Kate Winslet Gets Nasty in The Reader

by Matt Mazur

[8.Dec.08] :. In Winslet’s clever, low-key performance, all of the character’s ambiguousness remains intact, making Hanna her most complicated, mature creation to date.

‘Duchess’ is Merely Half-Hearted History

by Bill Gibron

[9.Oct.08] :. There’s a very good reason why most period pieces don’t work. Aside from the obvious disconnect from modern social constraints and complications, contemporary audiences just can’t...

Pretty Vacant

by Chris Barsanti

[26.Sep.08] :. The world of The Duchess should have been one of fiery tumult, but little of that foment makes it into this film’s garden party landscape.

The Duchess

by Cynthia Fuchs

[25.Sep.08] :. The movie, which surely celebrates Georgiana's (Keira Knightley) luxurious "hats and dresses," also solicits your sympathetic frustration and outrage over her oppression.

Talk, Talk, Talk: September 2008

by Bill Gibron

[9.Sep.08] :. From wars both past and present to a number of nail-biting thrillers, September is sizing up as a potentially profitable one.

Colin Farrell is not your ordinary hit man

by John Anderson [Newsday (MCT)]

[14.Feb.08] :. Bruges, the Belgian port city known for its medieval architecture and Flemishness, is referred to in such unspeakable terms during the upcoming “In Bruges” that one would have expected...

Bob Balaban, behind the camera for HBO’s ‘Bernard and Doris’

by Luaine Lee [McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)]

[12.Feb.08] :. SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Actor Bob Balaban is a force to be reckoned with - all 5 foot 5 ¾ of him. Most people know him from his roles in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,”...

In Bruges

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Feb.08] :. For all the showy action and spurty blood, it's the evolving intimacy between Ken and Ray that is most compelling in In Bruges.

Bernard and Doris

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Feb.08] :. As much as Bernard and Doris is a love story, it is also a study of the difficulties of class and sex, the ways that both complicate intimacy.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

by Bill Gibron

[13.Jul.07] :. While one might question the viability of the franchise once Rowling releases the last Potter tome... Order of the Phoenix finds the series settling in quite nicely

Rupert Grint is different from his ‘Harry Potter’ character

by Robert W. Butler [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[12.Jul.07] :. Sometimes an actor is so closely identified with a character that in the public’s eye he practically becomes the same person. In the case of Rupert Grint and Ron Weasley, the character Grint...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.Jul.07] :. Order of the Phoenix, for all its shortcomings, does make clear the sense of loss and struggle that comes with maturity.

Daniel Radcliffe talks ‘Harry Potter’

by Terry Lawson [Detroit Free Press (MCT)]

[11.Jul.07] :. Daniel Radcliffe has spent the years most young men reserve for rebellion being not only a superior role model for the millions of children who, like him, have grown up with Harry Potter, but also...

Monkey Business (Part 3: July)

by Bill Gibron

[3.May.07] :. Finally, a month with only one remaining series contender. All wizard based Potter-y aside, this will be the most tenuous time for the business called show. After a strong start, the eccentric collection of entertainments here could make or break this potentially record shattering motion picture season.

Land of the Blind (2006)

by Emma Simmonds

[14.Sep.06] :. Perhaps only upon repeat viewings will audiences become convinced that this film is not merely a stale piece of bread, if you will, but in fact something more meaty.

The White Countess (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[20.Jan.06] :. The final Merchant/Ivory collaboration is set in 1936 Shanghai and revisits the filmmakers' usual concerns -- loss, desire, and nostalgia for a moment that never quite existed.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[9.Oct.05] :. Cute but not aggravating. Witty but not arrogant. Wallace & Gromit is a clever send-up of classic horror movies.

The Constant Gardener (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[30.Aug.05] :. That might be the film's most potent insight, that the white guy cannot save the day.

The Good Thief (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[18.Aug.03] :. 'I wanted to create a world that doesn't quite exist, you know, a world of nighttime clubs and nighttime criminality.'"

Spider (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[28.Jul.03] :. It's creepy inside Spider's head.

The Good Thief (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[17.Apr.03] :. Doubles all stakes of the original film, and more elaborately, of the remaking process.

Maid in Manhattan (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[2.Apr.03] :. Jennifer Lopez has made a lucrative habit of reprising her story in most of her fictional incarnations.

Spider (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[28.Feb.03] :. It's creepy inside Spider's head.

Maid in Manhattan (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[13.Dec.02] :. This 'ethnic' modification of 'Pretty Woman'-meets-'Working Girl' uses the 'iconic' Lopez strategically.

Red Dragon (2002)

by Todd R. Ramlow

[3.Oct.02] :. What is most politically problematic about Red Dragon is how it furthers the relationship between physical disability and psychopathology.

Sunshine (1999)

by Lucas Hilderbrand

The theme of assimilation as survival strategy has certainly been covered in movies before, from young Jew Salomon Perel joining the Nazi youth in Europa Europa to Tai’s makeover from...

The End of the Affair (1999)

by jserpico

This is a diary of hate, reads Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) aloud as he simultaneously types these same words onto a page. Contrary to what you might expect following such a declaration, however, there is no violent emotion displayed in this introductory scene; no screaming, no violence, no melodrama.

The End of the Affair (1999)

by Cynthia Fuchs

On its surface, Neil Jordan's film of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair is about love. In particular, it appears to be about heterosexual love, or maybe the similarities and disjunctions between spiritual and physical manifestations of such love.