Tag Archives: Paul Giamatti

The Holdovers review — A new Christmas classic

Directed by Alexander Payne | Written by David Hemingson | 133 min | ▲▲▲▲▲ | Amazon Prime Alexander Payne is the director of wry, gentle, and humanist American features like Election, About Schmidt, Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska, and Downsizing.  His new film, The Holdovers, might be the best one yet. He and his collaborators have… Read More

A Rosamund Pike Primer: Redux

Since I first wrote about Rosamund Pike, she has strongly avoided the Hollywood A-list, despite it being entirely available to her. Full marks, then, for her left-of centre choices since Gone Girl, in films like A United Kingdom, Hostiles, and especially A Private War. I look forward to her role as Marie Curie in Radioactive,… Read More

Love & Mercy review — Excellent vibrations

Directed by Bill Pohlad, written by Oren Moverman and Michael A. Lerner, based on the life of Brian Wilson.  Coming soon on my podcast, Lens Me Your Ears, with Stephen Cooke, is an episode on musical biopics. My arm needed a little twisting on this subject because biopics in general aren't my favourite genre—I always ask… Read More