Tag Archives: Javier Bardem

Dune: Part Two review — The rise of Muad’dib

February 26, 2024 flawintheiris

Directed by Denis Villeneuve | Written by Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel by Frank Herbert | 168 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | In Cinemas After a painful delay for this much anticipated blockbuster sequel — just as the first one was delayed — it's here. In many respects it delivers on the promise… Read More

Being the Ricardos review — I liked Lucy

December 27, 2021 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Aaron Sorkin | 131 min | Amazon Prime It's the mid-1950s and comedian Lucille Ball is the biggest thing on TV. Her sitcom I Love Lucy earns 60 million viewers a week. We know this because we're being told as much in the movie by the show's writers, interviewed in a… Read More

Dune review — A cinematic feast

October 22, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Denis Villeneuve | Written by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth, based on the Frank Herbert book | 155 min | Netflix Oh, how we have waited for Dune. Of all the 2020 features postponed by the pandemic, this is the one I was most looking forward to seeing, and seeing on the… Read More

A look back at James Bond 007: the Daniel Craig Era (up to No Time To Die)

October 7, 2021 flawintheiris

Daniel Craig arrived with a flourish typical of a new Bond at a press conference on the banks of the Thames. The actor had proclaimed his tough guy credentials in a zippy crime drama called Layer Cake, and looked comfortable with props (like guns) in Munich, but seemed far from a shoo-in for the role… Read More

Everybody Knows review — Family melodrama trumps suspense

March 12, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Asghar Farhadi | 133 min | Netflix Two of Iranian auteur Farhadi's last three features won the Best Foreign Film Oscar, A Separation in 2011 and The Salesman in 2016. In between those two was The Past, also excellent. Farhadi is a humanist filmmaker, who roots his social realist tales in character and family. They… Read More

mother! review — An ambitious, divisive, mind-blower of a movie

October 5, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Darren Aronofsky | 121 min | On Demand Far and away the most controversial film of the year so far, mother! earned an F grade from Cinemascore, indicating Las Vegas test audiences were not at all happy with their experience at the movies. I'm not surprised: mother! is barbed, with claws out for… Read More

The Gunman review — a straight-ahead black-ops actioner

March 21, 2015 flawintheiris

Directed by Pierre Morel, Written by Don MacPherson, Pete Travis, from a the novel The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette Spy thrillers arrive on a spectrum. At one end the flashy James Bond, and at the other the more cerebral Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy—the Brits do them better than anyone. The Gunman is much closer to the 007 end of… Read More

The Counselor review

October 27, 2013 flawintheiris

Directed by Ridley ScottWritten by Cormac McCarthyThis is the first screenplay written directly for the big screen by Pulitzer Prize-winning McCarthy, whose dusty, western novels often concern themselves with the darkness in men's hearts—adapted in movies like No Country For Old Men and All The Pretty Horses, as well as the post-apocalyptic The Road. This,… Read More

To the Wonder review

May 12, 2013 flawintheiris

Written and directed by Terrence MalickCinema as poetry. This is how Malick's last feature, The Tree of Life, was described by some. But that wasn't half of it. To the Wonder takes that descriptor far further. And in doing so, Malick provides an astonishingly beautiful film, but one that demands a lot of attention and… Read More

More thoughts on James Bond 007 and Skyfall

November 20, 2012 flawintheiris

As you may have read, I really liked Skyfall. While recognizing how many problems the film has, it really worked as an action movie, and furthered the franchise, I think, by offering a more human, more vulnerable Agent 007. A man with a past. And given the box office, it seems audiences agree. But, wow,… Read More