Articles tagged "sam rockwell"

News

Duncan Jones explores notions of home and self in ‘Moon’

by Michael Upchurch [The Seattle Times (MCT)]

[4.Jul.09] :. SEATTLE — Duncan Jones’ eerie yet playful science-fiction feature debut, “Moon,” flirts with a number of contradictions. Much of it is special-effects driven, yet its...

PopWire

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview Feature

Summer of Same: June 2009

by Bill Gibron

[28.Apr.09] :. This month's "original" fare offers a take on a Sid and Marty Krofft classic, more battling seizure robots, and the retaking of '70s subway thriller. Everything old is new again.

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview

Mixed Media

“Moon” directed by Duncan Jones (stills / trailer)

by PopMatters Staff

[16.Apr.09] :. Moon, directed by Duncan Jones and starring Sam Rockwell, appeared at the recent Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca film festivals and now opens in limited release in New York and Los Angeles on June...

Mixed Media

Column: The Box Office Belletrist

Chok(ing) Onscreen and In Print

by Jennifer Makowsky

[31.Mar.09] :. Whether served up on the page or on the screen, this is an intimate assessment of a twisted mother/son relationship with plenty of sardonic humor and scathing satire.

Recent columns

Decade-Dense: The 60 Most Memorable Films of 1999 Feature

Part 5: Toy Story 2 to Titus (November - December 1999)

by PopMatters Staff

[27.Mar.09] :. On this final day of PopMatters' 1999 overview, awards season hype gives way to pure acting prowess and definitive directorial flair.

Decade-Dense: The 60 Most Memorable Films of 1999

Film DVD Review

Choke

by Stuart Henderson

[23.Mar.09] :. Palahniuk loves our disillusionment, or hates it enough to understand just exactly how it operates, and in what darkened corners of our cities and towns it is made manifest.

Recent DVD reviews

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...

The New Classics - The 30 Best Films of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[16.Jan.09] :. Unlike previous years, where classics came crawling out of the celluloid woodwork with regular reckless abandon, 2008 was more calm… and considered. That's not to say that choosing 30 top titles was hard. The difficulty in placing them in some manner of rank order suggests the actual depth of quality involved.

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.

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.

In battle of stage vs. screen, the play wins

by Chris Jones [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[8.Jan.09] :. As movie adaptations of stage plays go, the recently released “Frost/Nixon” and “Doubt” are among the best of recent vintage, not least because the writers of the sourcing...

‘Frost/Nixon’ Feigns Actual History Well

by Bill Gibron

[24.Dec.08] :. Those of us who lived through it will never forget how it unraveled before our unbelieving eyes. As each new day brought another revelation, as White House damage control caused as much controversy...

From stage to screen, Nixon’s the one for Frank Langella

by Steven Rea [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[15.Dec.08] :. “I really did think it was going to be seven weeks, in and out,” says Frank Langella, recalling his decision, in early 2006, to star as Richard M. Nixon in Peter Morgan’s play,...

Fast chat with ‘Frost/Nixon’ co-star Michael Sheen

by Frank Lovece [Newsday (MCT)]

[11.Dec.08] :. Movie-star math: Michael Sheen is to the Martin Sheen acting family as Adam Baldwin is to the Alec Baldwin acting family - no relation. The Welsh actor may soon be as well-known as any of them in...

Tricky shtick: Nixon film portrayals are irresistible to actors, but essence is elusive

by Michael Phillips [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[7.Dec.08] :. Richard M. Nixon adored the movies. He walked out of “West Side Story,” which he dismissed as “propaganda,” but he revered John Ford, kept up with the New Hollywood...

Frost/Nixon

by Cynthia Fuchs

[5.Dec.08] :. No matter Frost/Nixon's efforts to revise it, history will never be the same.

Frost/Nixon: An Interview with a Vampire

by Chris Barsanti

[4.Dec.08] :. Frank Langella seethes and pulsates with cunning as the deposed president in 'Frost/Nixon', a far cry from the grinning cowboy executive Josh Brolin presented in 'W'.

Frost/Nixon Stills and Trailer

by PopMatters Staff

[3.Dec.08] :. FROST/NIXON Release: 5 December and 12 December (limited) and 25 December (wide) Director: Ron Howard Cast: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones...

The F Word

by Cynthia Fuchs

[4.Nov.08] :. It so happens that Jed Weintrob's The F Word is airing on IFC this morning, the very morning that the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing FCC v. Fox Television Stations, the "fleeting expletives" case.

Choke

by Cynthia Fuchs

[26.Sep.08] :. If Choke isn’t the first movie where a young narrator's self-pity, obsessiveness, and desperation are blamed on his mother, it is one of the more emphatic versions.

Talk, Talk, Talk: December 2008

by Bill Gibron

[12.Sep.08] :. Just like the end of an inspiring speech that may or may not succeed in making its point, these final four weeks before 2009 tend to define or defeat the entire awards season purpose.

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.

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: August 2008

by Bill Gibron

[1.May.08] :. Talk about a crowded schedule. There are more offerings scheduled this month than in the previous two combined.

‘Snow Angels’ star Sam Rockwell loves playing offbeat characters

by Lewis Beale [Newsday (MCT)]

[27.Mar.08] :. Another film, another whack-job character role for Sam Rockwell. In “Snow Angels,” the gifted, 39-year-old character actor plays a suicidal, born-again Christian trying to reconnect with...

Snow Angels

by Cynthia Fuchs

[13.Mar.08] :. At its center, and much like David Gordon Green's other movies, Snow Angels is about faith.

Joshua

by Evan Sawdey

[30.Jan.08] :. Fear of your own child is exploited for maximum effect in this thriller, but there's little in the way of (believable) explanations for the characters’ actions.

A Gallery of Good Works: The Best Films of 2007

by PopMatters Staff

[11.Jan.08] :. From Julian Schnabel's artsy The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to the legendary Coen Brothers splendid adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men, PopMatters counts down the 30 best films of 2007.

The up-and-coming Affleck: younger brother Casey, in 2 new films

by Steven Rea [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[19.Oct.07] :. TORONTO—Don’t underestimate Casey Affleck, the reedy-voiced, baby-faced actor, who is younger brother to Ben. Like the character he plays in “Gone Baby Gone”—the...

Joshua (2007)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[6.Jul.07] :. At first, Joshua invites you almost to imagine the boy's sense of rejection and growing frustration.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[10.Oct.05] :. For all its possibilities -- and its crazily pleasant animations --the movie takes a more or less conventional narrative shape.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[29.Apr.05] :. Ford Prefect (Mos Def) wanders into the film of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a little late, and in no hurry.

Matchstick Men (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.Sep.03] :. The distinctive thunk-thunk-thunk of Angela's skateboard punctuates his first look at her from behind his smoke-clouded windshield.

Charlie’s Angels (2000)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[9.Jun.03] :. 'Can you imagine Drew and Cameron and Lucy fighting in this capacity? It would be so sexy! It would be so exciting!'.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[23.Jan.03] :. His redemption, Barris abruptly realizes, can come only in detailed recollection, specifically, in his decision to confess his many sins.

Heist (2001)

by WRITER

[8.Nov.01] :. [David Mamet's] language, severe and spare, actually sounds quite human comin

The Green Mile (1999)

by Cynthia Fuchs

ound dogs baying, wildflowers bending to the wind, angry white men in shirt-sleeves carrying shotguns, a swatch of cloth clinging to a tree branch. The details are all a little too familiar. You know you're looking at yet another recreation of the scary Old American South, specifically, you're looking at the set up for a lynching. This first scene of Frank Darabont's The Green Mile...

Galaxy Quest (1999)

by Jonathan Beller

In the guise of a spoof of Star Trek, Dean Parisot's cheesy and pleasurable Galaxy Quest delves deeply into the social relation known as fandom. What, the film seems to ask, is a fan?"

Galaxy Quest (1999)

by Mike Ward

Robert Zemeckis's Contact (1997) is without a doubt the finest movie in recent memory to deal with the question of what might be happening to all those rays of media dreck - TV shows, radio programs, and the like - we've been beaming higgledy-piggledy through the cosmos for the last century. Galaxy Quest is almost as certainly the second-finest such recent film, but come to think of it, I can't really recall a third, offhand, so I suppose this might constitute a less-than-ringing endorsement.

The Green Mile (1999)

by Mark Reiter

It's not news to anyone that Steven King screen adaptations get tossed into two categories: absolute crap (Maximum Overdrive, Cujo, Pet Cemetery, et. al.) and important American cinema (Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Frank Darabont's previous King adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption).

Charlie’s Angels (2000)

by America Billy

More often than not, when transforming a once-popular TV series into a movie, filmmakers try to update the style, pace, and attitude of the original in order to fit the contemporary context. But as...

Charlie’s Angels (2000)

by Cynthia Fuchs

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Drew Barrymore moonwalking to “Billie Jean.” This isn’t to say that you absolutely need to run out to see Charlie’s...