Bleak. Gritty. Raw. Realistic. Gripping. There are at least two dozen adjectives that can be properly applied to describe Sicario, the latest film from Denis Villeneuve. Once again teaming up with cinematographer Roger Deakins, as he did in the excellent movie Prisoners, the results are staggeringly excellent.
“Wallace Avery” (Colin Firth) is the man who could have been somebody. He was a golf pro with talent but lacking the ability to handle pressure-filled situations. Now he’s a manager at Fed-Ex who dreamt of becoming the company’s CEO and will never get there. He has a son, an ex-wife and a girlfriend, all of whom he seems to disappoint with great consistency.
Read moreEmily Blunt shines in ‘Arthur Newman’, but film does not
A looper is a hired killer. He has been hired by an unseen crime boss 30 years into the future, because when time-travel finally becomes possible, it’s too difficult to easily dispose of a dead body. So this crime boss sent a man named “Abe” (Jeff Daniels) back to the 2040s to hire some assassins. The work is easy, the victim arrives from the future at a specified time, at a specified place. The payment for killing and disposing of the body is several silver bars attached to the body.
Read more‘Looper’ takes time travel and body disposal for a loop
[rating=3]Starring: Emily Blunt, Mark Durplass, Rosemarie DeWitt
Director(s): Lynn Shelton
Writer(s): Lynn Shelton
Company: Ada Films, IFC Films
Your Sister’s Sister opens with “Jack” (Mark Durplass) is at a celebration of the one year anniversary of the death of his brother, Tom. One of Tom’s friends is proposing a toast and it’s one that remembers everything about Tom that made him such a wonderful person.
I’m a big fan of Emily Blunt.
I became a big fan of Jason Segel’s after his recent work in Jeff, Who Lives at Home.
I’m a big fan of director Nicholas Stoller, after Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek.
So what the heck happened to their newest collaboration, The Five-Year Engagement?
I’m still wondering, more than a day after leaving the auditorioum as I shook my head over what I’d just seen. The problem is, I went to see a movie marketed as being “from the producer ofBridesmaids, and this just wasn’t nearly funny enough.
Read more‘The Five-Year Engagement’ desperately needs more laughs
The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, with Stanley Tucci and Emily Blount in strong supporting roles, is from an acclaimed novel by Lauren Weisberger which I have not read. The good news is that you … Read more