by Coeli Carr | Dec 26, 2013
For many people, daydreams are the most grandiose source of faux reality they’ll ever experience. In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring and directed by Ben Stiller, Walter has garnered considerable expertise in the art of Neptunian, zoned-out escapism which... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 26, 2013
Based on the true story of crooked broker Jordan Belfort, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is a three-hour evocation of the revelry-filled Roman festival known as the Saturnalia. At some point during that ancient manic carnival, the head reveler was put to... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 20, 2013
The title Saving Mr. Banks tells us this man will be saved. The person in charge of delivering the fellow from harm is another matter entirely. Learning the identity of that individual is at the weepy core of John Lee Hancock’s movie. Mention the word “save” and,... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 11, 2013
As the Smaug of the title indicates, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug promises a confrontation with dragon flesh. The creature is worth the wait: it’s a massive, meaty and terrifying specimen (threateningly yet seductively voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) that... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 10, 2013
David O. Russell’s American Hustle is a massive con-artist romp whose every moment bursts with its characters’ desperation, greed and lies. A period piece set in New York and New Jersey during the late 1970s, the movie is loosely based on the Abscam scandal, tied to... 
by Coeli Carr | Dec 3, 2013
The testosterone-suffused Out of the Furnace, written and co-directed by Scott Cooper, is a grim take on archetypal Mars gone berserk. The red planet, which oversees the business of how one goes about getting what one wants, bleeds its crimson in every frame,... 