If the manic riffing of Robin Williams occupies one end of the spectrum of pop-culture genies, Idris Elba’s glum and mournful jinn in George Miller’s new film Three Thousand Years of Longing sits, or rather stews, on its opposite end. Downplayed and downcast, he is suffused with languor, his occasional pangs of curiosity toward modern life blunted by sullen memories of previous … [Read more...]
‘Mountain Between Us’ strands viewers on an Everest of romantic clichés
Boy meets girl in The Mountain Between Us, but they certainly don’t meet cute. Alex (Kate Winslet) and Ben (Idris Elba) are harried professionals making the best of a rotten situation. She’s a photojournalist for The Guardian set to be married 24 hours hence to boring, gray-haired Dermot Mulroney. He’s a tall, dark and brooding neurosurgeon with a dying patient awaiting his … [Read more...]