Category Archives: Historical Drama

Michael review — Who’s bad? This is.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua | Written by John Logan | ▲1/2 | In Cinemas The best I can say about this box office-busting Michael Jackson biopic is it's professionally made — how could it not be from the Hollywood journeyman director who gave us The Equalizer franchise and the writer of Gladiator and Skyfall? It's also…Read More

The Bride! review — An ode to disobedient geometry

Written and Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal | 126 min | ▲▲1/2   A raucous, semi-inspired reimagining of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the way Universal turned the myth into a franchise, not to be confused with this one from the 1980s. This is a deeply feminist vision, coming from actor-turned-filmmaker Gyllenhaal, whose solid first film, The Lost…Read More

The Choral review — A pleasantly sad song

Directed by Nicholas Hytner | Written by Alan Bennett and Stephen Beresford | 113 min | ▲▲1/2 The word that comes to mind when perusing these filmmakers' body of work is "distinguished." Hytner has spent much of his time recently filming UK National Theatre productions. His last feature was a decade ago, The Lady In…Read More

From The Vault: Restoration (1995) review

Directed by Michael Hoffman | Written by Rupert Walters, based on a novel by Rose Tremain | 117 min | ▲1/2 | DVD, on VOD in the United States Sheer, hardheaded curiosity forced me to track down this feature — a lost Miramax picture from the mid-'90s, star-studded and Academy-awarded (for Art Direction and Costume…Read More