curated cinema: a previous trip to Arrakis
1984’s Dune leaves UK Mubi in 6 days; it’s streaming on Max in the US.
Virginia Madsen
Candyman movie review: say his name… and understand its power
Strikingly original horror with a purpose: to delve into the mythologizing of the past, to explore the boundary between cultural appropriation and artistic inspiration, to heed the lessons of history.
movies by or about women opening US/Can Apr 12
Jenny Gage directs and Susan McMartin writes romantic drama After, starring Josephine Langford; more… [This post is for Patreon patrons only for the first month.]
Joy movie review: a mess to be mopped up
Even the miscasting of Jennifer Lawrence takes a backseat to the forced quirkiness, which David O. Russell cannot get his cast on the same page with.
The Haunting in Connecticut (review)
It’s almost impossible not to be sympathetic to any character Virginia Madsen (The Number 23) plays, she’s so irresistibly likeable a screen presence, but that gets tried sorely in this rote haunted-house flick, which telegraphs its obvious scares, even the ones it has shamelessly stolen from far superior scary movies. The year is 1987, and … more…
best performances of 2004: ready for their closeup…
BEST ACTOR Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda It’s a role that, in the hands of even another very competent actor, could have descended into pathos and sentimentality, but Cheadle’s performance goes way beyond mere competence: As an Oskar Schindler-type figure in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, he approaches incomprehensible horrors in a way that makes us intimate partners … more…
