Tag: Period Piece

REVIEW: While not Guadagnino’s best, ‘Queer’ is a quality drama

Luca Guadagnino has helmed several well-made romantic dramas over the last few years, and now adds one more to the growing list.

Like other pictures he’s done, Guadagnino’s latest, “Queer,” is inspired by a book. The novel in this case has the same name and is a semi-autobiographical piece by American author William S. Burroughs. In the film, the author is the inspiration for the lead character William Lee (Daniel Craig).

William is a man residing in Mexico City during the 1950s and lives a life of addiction. He is an alcoholic, a heroin user and seeks casual sex regularly. It’s clear he’s looking for some sort of fulfillment in his life, and he may just find it in a new relationship he begins with another man, Eugene (Drew Starkey) early in the film.

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REVIEW: ‘September 5’ fires on nearly every cylinder

Two decades after playing the editor of a print outlet in 2003’s “Shattered Glass,” Peter Sarsgaard has returned to journalism cinema, now leading a broadcast team.

Like the aforementioned film, Sarsgaard plays a real-life figure here, this time Roone Arledge. News isn’t Arledge’s first focus, though, as his main priority is helming ABC Sports’ coverage of the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Arledge and control room producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) are forced to take up the news mantle, though, as the 1972 terrorist attack begins to unfold. Over the course of the next several hours, the ABC team has to adjust and adapt on the fly to cover the increasingly dangerous situation.

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REVIEW: ‘Gladiator II’ retreads familiar ground, but has great action

Once again, I am entertained by a “Gladiator,” Maybe not as moved, though.

“Gladiator II” is set 16 years after the original film from 2000 concluded. Rome is now ruled by a corrupt pair of twins who have let the city state fall into a mess as they enjoy luxuries made possible by ongoing expansion of their empire.

Meanwhile, a warrior, Hanno (Paul Mescal) is captured while fighting for his city in North Africa from a successful Roman invasion. After losing his wife in the battle, he sets his sights on revenge against a Roman general, and gets an opportunity to do so by fighting his way through the Gladiator system.

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REVIEW: Mildly amusing ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ never fully takes off

Scarlett Johansson makes it two in a row with space-themed films, following up her appearance in 2023’s “Asteroid City” with this summer’s “Fly Me to the Moon.”

This time around, Johansson plays an advertising ace named Kelly. Because of her record of success in marketing, Kelly is recruited by a mysterious government agent named Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) to bolster the public’s perception of NASA.

It comes at a time when NASA is looking to forge ahead on its Moon mission, despite losing the loss of public interest. Kelly starts turning that around, much to the chagrin of by-the-books launch director Cole (Channing Tatum). However, Kelly starts winning him over, too.

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REVIEW: ‘The Color Purple’ powered by cast, weakened by script

“The Color Purple” makes sense as a title, because the hardships the main character goes through will have someone feeling blue and seeing red.

Based on the stage musical, which itself was an adaptation of a 1982 novel, “Color Purple” is a film centered around the character Celie Harris-Johnson (Fantasia Barrino). As a teenager, Celine is raped by her father and gives birth to two children, who are taken from her and given to the church for adoption.

The cruelty doesn’t stop there, as he then arranges Celie to be married to an abusive farmer named Albert (Colman Domingo). During this time, she’s also separated from her sister, Nettie (Halle Bailey). Celie goes through many hardships, but finds some kindness and encouragement from other women, including Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and a singer named Shug (Taraji P. Henson).

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REVIEW: Despite strong filmmaking, ‘Zone of Interest’ loses momentum

During the Nuremberg Trials, Rudolf Höss admitted that well over a million people were killed while he was commandant at Auschwitz. As this film shows, he had no issue maintaining a regular life next door.

Set in 1943, “The Zone of Interest” follows Höss (Christian Friedel) not inside the infamous camp, but rather at home with his family. While he was in charge of the camp, his residence was right beside it, only separated by a high concrete wall.

As the film demonstrates, the proximity to a place of extermination did not hinder the Höss family from living an average life, where the patriarch went off to work in the morning while his wife tended to the children and kept busy with a garden. They did all of this all while hearing the sounds from the camp.

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REVIEW: ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ is a powerful, meticulously made historic epic

Martin Scorsese has once again returned to the crime drama genre, focusing on a series of murders known as the “Reign of Terror.”

“Killers of the Flower Moon” centers on a conspiracy to murder members of the Osage Nation and steal their wealth and land. In Osage County, Oklahoma, members on the reservation received rights to royalties from oil production that was taking place on their land. The finances they inherited, unfortunately, made those with rights targets to others.

Scorsese’s film centers on these events, mainly through the eyes of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio). A World War I veteran, Ernest arrives in Osage to work with his uncle William Hale (Robert De Niro) as the murders are picking up. During this time, Ernest himself marries a woman with rights to oil wealth herself, Mollie (Lily Gladstone).

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REVIEW: Alexander Payne’s ‘The Holdovers’ is a funny, emotional winner

This just in, Paul Giamatti continues to be a national treasure.

The Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee portrays Paul Hunham in “The Holdovers.” A teacher at a private boys high school in the 1970s, Paul has earned himself a reputation as a notoriously tough teacher and not the most pleasant to chat with.

Unfortunately for some students who have to stay at the school during the holiday break, they have to spend their days with Paul, who’s the designated the chaperone. One student in particular, Angus (Dominic Sessa) has to spend an extended time there. But as time goes on, he finds himself bonding with both Paul and the school’s head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph)

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REVIEW: Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ is an immaculate cinematic achievement

Scientific breakthroughs can be great things, leading to new discoveries and improvements in quality of life. They can also create terrifying, destructive power.

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” captures the latter, and the impact it had on the figure that helmed such a breakthrough.

The film mainly revolves around J. Robert Oppenheimer’s work on the Manhattan Project, what led him to his involvement, and subsequent investigations into his character during the Red Scare. To do this the movie goes back and forth between three time periods.

Most of the movie takes place during the time where Oppenheimer was becoming a scientist and his work in Los Alamos. However, the movie also includes moments from Oppenheimer’s security hearing in 1954, as well as scenes in 1959 when Lewis Strauss’ hostile relationship with the physicist was brought up in commerce secretary nomination hearings with the Senate.

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REVIEW: ‘Chevalier’ gives insight to important musician, but does so generically

A story during the era of the French Revolution that’s gone largely untold is given a spotlight in this film.

It’s an admirable effort, although there’s a feeling it could have been stronger.

The movie centers on Joseph Bologne, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner who was raised to become a great violinist. Because of his skills, he finds himself in France’s high society, and is named Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

The movie picks up with Queen Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) giving Joseph the opportunity to lead an opera house via a competition with another composer, to see who can write the best one. During that process, Joseph begins an affair with a married woman, Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving). As this is happening, there are rumblings of revolution, and it will all come to a head.

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