Tag Archives: Carey Mulligan

Inside Llewyn Davis review

Written and directed by Joel and Ethan CoenI love the Coens. They've carved out for themselves a wonderful, peculiar corner of Americana. No matter the subject, their films exhibit an intellectual, anarchic wit that's all their own. Only a handful of their peers, US filmmakers and writers—maybe Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Nicole Holofcener, Charlie… Read More

The To Do List review

Written and directed by Maggie CareyOh, the damage to my own innocence from having given up 100 minutes of my life with Tom Cruise and Shelley Long in 1983's Losin' It. The movie belonged to a genre of teen comedy that has very happily gone the way of the dodo: the devirginizing romp. Oh, it still comes… Read More

The Great Gatsby review

Directed by Baz LuhrmannWritten by Luhrmann and Craig Pearce, adapting the F. Scott Fitzgerald novelThe one thing I liked about Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann's last hit feature more than 10 years ago, was how he created this grand period spectacle laced with contemporary music. It was fun identifying the songs being performed by Nicole Kidman and… Read More

Top 10 Movies of 2009

Today is the anniversary of FITI. Two years of my relentless spew. Thanks for checking it out.Continuing on the Words About Movies Before This Blog Started theme—The Top 10 of 2007 and 2008 were posted earlier this week—here's my picks for 2009. (Please excuse my CAPS, that's when 2012 me had to have his say.)… Read More

I saw Shame

On Monday morning I saw a preview of Steve McQueen's Shame. This is the second film from British auteur McQueen, following his picture Hunger from a couple of years back. Shame is a powerful look at a Manhattan corporate type's sexual compulsion. It's chilly, intense and quite frank in its sexual content, with lots of… Read More

Drive review

Directed by Nicolas Winding RefnWritten by Hossien Amini from a book by James SallisI was so ready for this movie for a bunch of reasons. 1) Ryan Gosling is the King of Hollywood right now. He can do whatever he wants, get any movie made by showing an interest, and he's shown that he either… Read More

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps review

Directed by Oliver StoneWritten by Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff, based oncharacters by Stone and Stanley WeiserOn DVDAbout 40 minutes into Oliver Stone’s revisiting of his 80s screed on the dangers and allure of big money, the sequel to Wall Street feels just a little, I dunno, drab? It’s hard to put your finger on… Read More