by
Julien Faddoul
A Star is Born *
A musician helps a young singer and actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.
It’s never less than interesting seeing Cooper - his first effort as a filmmaker - hold on so staunchly to reconstructing essentially the same beats that have been interpreted in five films now (including the 1932 original What Price Hollywood?) The result is a rather bland pop-rock remake relying far too much on ersatz naturalism to cover up its stale script, including an overabundance of curse words and hand-held close-ups. Some of the numbers are staged with verve, but the melodrama is dead in the water.
d – Bradley Cooper
w – Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters (Based on the Story by William A. Wellman, Robert Carson)
ph – Matthew Libatique
pd – Karen Murphy
ed – Jay Cassidy
cos – Erin Benach
p – Bradley Cooper, Bill Gerber, Lynette Howell Taylor, Jon Peters, Todd Phillips
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Sam Elliott, Dave Chappelle, Bonnie Somerville, Andrew Dice Clay, Michael Harney
Venom
When Eddie Brock acquires the powers of a symbiote, he will have to release his alter-ego “Venom” to save his life.
An incoherent mess: Ineptly shot and edited to the point where sense and logic become casualties for the audience to mourn.
d – Ruben Fleischer
w – Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, Kelly Marcel (Based on the Characters Created by Todd McFarlane, David Michelinie)
ph – Matthew Libatique
pd – Oliver Scholl
m – Ludwig Göransson
ed – Alan Baumgarten, Maryann Brandon
cos – Kelli Jones
p – Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Matt Tolmach
Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Woody Harrelson, Ron Cephas Jones, Melora Walters, Michelle Lee
Little Women
A modern retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s novel.
Embarrassing attempt at covering literary material that has been adapted for the screen so many times due to its 1868 publishing falling under public domain. The novel’s plot points feel wedged-in, the performances are shrill and the photography looks conspicuously cheap.
d – Clare Niederpruem
w – Clare Niederpruem, Kristi Shimek (Based on the Novel by Louisa May Alcott)
ph – Anka Malatynska
pd – Lauren Spalding
m – Robert Allen Elliott
ed – Kristi Shimek
cos – Emily Jacobson
p – Maclain Nelson, Kristi Shimek, Stephen Shimek, David M. Wulf
Cast: Sarah Davenport, Melanie Stone, Allie Jennings, Taylor Ashley Murphy, Lea Thompson, Lucas Grabeel, Ian Bohen, Bart Johnson, Adam Johnson
Golden Exits **
An intersectional narrative of two families in Brooklyn and the unraveling of unspoken unhappiness that occurs when a young Australian girl spending time abroad upsets the balance on both sides.
Bergmanesque wallow through Carroll Gardens, with its writer/director softly grazing his favourite themes, including sibling frustration, moral superiority and unhappy losers on the verge of self-disenfranchisement.
wd – Alex Ross Perry
ph – Sean Price Williams
pd – Fletcher Chancey, Scott Kuzio
m – Keegan Dewitt
ed – Robert Greene
cos – Amanda Ford
p – Joshua Blum, Alex Ross Perry, Adam Piotrowicz, Katie Stern, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos
Cast: Emily Browning, Mary-Louise Parker, Adam Horovitz, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny, Analeigh Tipton, Keith Poulson, Craig Butta, Kate Lyn Sheil
Life Itself
As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.
So jejune, so self-indulgent in its infantile themes of life as a phenomenon, and how we are all connected in this beautiful world, that mockery is inescapable. It’s also frightfully boring.
wd – Dan Fogelman
ph – Brett Pawlak
pd – Gerald Sullivan
m – Federico Jusid
ed – Julie Monroe
cos – Melissa Toth
p – Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Aaron Ryder
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Samuel L. Jackson, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Àlex Monner, Jake Robinson
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