Tag Archives: Laura Dern

The Son review — Divorce, depression, and despair

January 23, 2023 flawintheiris

Directed by Florian Zeller | Written by Christopher Hampton, based on a play by Zeller | 123 min | ▲▲△△△ Despite the similarity in the titles, there's no narrative connection between this picture and Zeller's last film, the excellent The Father, though I gather it originally had a connection on the stage, along with a… Read More

Kristen Stewart film reviews: Seberg, Lizzie, JT LeRoy, Underwater

June 4, 2020 flawintheiris

Kristen Stewart is working nonstop these days — she's been in five features in the past three years, the highest profile being Charlie's Angels, with Happiest Season still expected later in 2020. The actor achieved fame through the sparkly vampire-ridden Twilight series, but in recent years has pursued far more interesting and varied feature work.… Read More

Little Women (2019) review — Greta Gerwig reimagines a classic text

December 29, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Greta Gerwig, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott | 135 min | Netflix Having seen four earlier versions adapting this material in the past week—though not having read the book—I came to this newest edition feeling like I know this story pretty well, but hoping Gerwig could present it… Read More

Marriage Story review — Divorce drama funny and moving

December 22, 2019 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Noah Baumbach | 137 min | Netflix No one wants to say it because Woody Allen's name is poison these days, but watching the movies of romantically linked-in-real-life storytellers Baumbach and Greta Gerwig often feels like a direct offshoot of the Woodster's work, updated for the 21st Century. It's not the… Read More

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom review — A somewhat improved monster

June 24, 2018 flawintheiris

Directed by JA Bayona | Written by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow, based on characters by Michael Crichton | 128 min Regular readers of this blog might recall from back in 2015 the hate-on I had for the first reboot/sequel in this current run of the popular dinosaur franchise. It was awful, and a mystery to me… Read More

Star Wars: The Last Jedi review — The Force could be stronger with this one

December 15, 2017 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Rian Johnson | 152 min By now we're all amongst the initiates, if not the disciples, of Star Wars. And while these movies were the base mythology of my childhood, I can't overlook how these fan-fiction sequels absent George Lucas bend over backward to echo the early trilogy—with frequent and direct… Read More

The Founder review — How burgers built America

January 19, 2017 flawintheiris

Directed by John Lee Hancock | Written by Robert Siegel | 115 min Movies about people achieving the American Dream are as old as Hollywood itself. Here's a fresh one telling another rags-to-riches tale. You probably know the name Ray Kroc as the guy from McDonald's restaurants. The Founder tells Kroc's whole story, and also the story… Read More

10 Best Under-the-Radar Films of 2015

December 31, 2015 flawintheiris

As I mentioned the other day in my look back at 2015 in the cinema, my Top 10 of 2015 will be coming soon, once I've caught up on a few more pictures. In the meantime, here's another list to consider. As per usual, plenty of the year's best cinema found their way to us on… Read More

Wild review — An affecting drama of personal change, but for one thing…

December 30, 2014 flawintheiris

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, written by Nick Hornby, adapting the memoir by Cheryl Strayed It's a great thing that the Quebec filmmaker Vallée is working in Hollywood. He made a big splash with last year's terrific Dallas Buyers Club, though I've been enjoying his work since he made C.R.A.Z.Y. and his best film, Cafe de Flore.… Read More

The Fault in Our Stars review

June 10, 2014 flawintheiris

Directed by Josh Boone, written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, adapting the book by John Green I'll admit it. I cried. I saw the way this movie set me up to get emotional toward the end and it didn't matter an iota that I was aware of its machinations. So, crying-credit where it's… Read More