Film: If there is a better actor working today than Meryl Streep, I cannot imagine who it would be. Sure, she can transform herself with accents and makeup, but take a look at how terrific she is without much of either in Hope Springs, the tale of a long-married housewife who wants to rekindle the romance in her relationship with a cynical tightwad accountant (Tommy Lee Jones). … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 12-13
Art: Today marks the last day of the Florida Atlantic University’s exhibit on the history of surfing in Florida (here’s a YouTube promo). The University Galleries won a grant of almost $17,000 in late 2009 to research and mount the exhibit, which has been on display since March 17, and will head to Pensacola Museum of Art this summer. The show, Surfing Florida: A Photographic … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Dec. 17-19
Film: There have been plenty of fact-based boxing movies and most get trapped on the ropes with sports clichés. But David O. Russell’s The Fighter is as much about “Irish” Micky Ward’s wildly dysfunctional family as it is about the fight game. Mark Wahlberg plays Ward well enough and it certainly isn’t his fault that he is outclassed by the brilliant Christian Bale as his … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Nov. 5-7
Film: Among the many atrocities attributable to the Nazis is the masterful way they churned out propaganda films during World War II. A new inside look at their disinformation machine is found in A Film Unfinished, a documentary by Yael Hersonski that sifts through existing footage of the Third Reich’s depiction of the Jewish ghetto, contrasting the well-off and the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: July 2-5
Film: There is an alternative to the vampires and werewolves of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and the sci-fi fantasy of The Last Airbender. It’s I Am Love, a sensuous film from debuting Italian director Luca Guadagnino with a starring performance by Oscar winner Tilda Swinton that is her best work yet on celluloid. She plays the Russian-born wife of a Milanese businessman who has … [Read more...]
The View From Home: New releases on DVD
While we’ve been dedicated to reviewing the newest movies to hit theaters on a regular basis, we here at ArtsPaper know that most viewing is done at home these days. Many movies already debut on pay television concurrently with their theatrical release, and many quality films either don’t receive theatrical distribution or don’t play in the comparatively small South Florida … [Read more...]