Helping promote her new movies The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and American Hustle, actress Jennifer Lawrence has cover spreads in both the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK and the December issue of InStyle. You can find the photos from both cover shoots inside.
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Jennifer Lawrence is Bazaar and InStyle Read More »
For this 70’s tale of con men (Christian Bale and Amy Adams) in over their heads writer/director David O. Russell reunites with Silver Linings Playbook stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Part character study, part insane and over-the-top adventure, American Hustle offers audiences one of the year’s best films.
After a brief introduction to Irving Rosenfeld (Bale) and his mistress and co-conspirator Sydney (Adams), the pair are busted by up-and-coming FBI hot-head Richie DiMaso (Cooper) who decides to use the pair to pull in even bigger fish. Regardless of danger or consequences, and against the orders of his boss (Louis C.K.), DiMaso pushes Irving and Sydney into going after both the mob and local politicians, beginning with Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) who is interested in rebuilding Atlantic City.
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The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is very much a typical sequel with the same inherent strengths and weaknesses of the first film. Those who enjoyed The Hunger Games (based on a series of teen fiction) are likely to enjoy this one as well. And those, like me, who found the first film wanting will have a similar reaction to the sequel.
Picking up a year after the events of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) leave their separate lives to reconnect for a celebratory tour on the anniversary of their win. Despite little contact over the past year, the pair play up the lovers angle at the command of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) who hopes it may help quell the glimmer of insurrection Katniss’ victory began.
When Katniss proves unable to give Snow what he wants, and he realizes killing her would only create a martyr, the president reaches out to new game master Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to design a scenario to end both her popularity and her life.
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2012 turned out to be a pretty darn good year at the movies. There were two films which I gave perfect scores to this year, one of which the majority of the country won’t be seeing until early next year. I’m breaking my own rule of including it on the list, but we’ll get to that in a moment. Between these two films, which naturally open and close the list (as it’s presented alphabetically), are eight other films rounding out the class of 2012.
Cutting down my list to ten means I need to speak for a moment on films that barely missed the cut. John Carter was the year’s most under-appreciated film, The Cabin in the Woods turned the horror genre on its ear, Ang Lee delivered an amazing journey with Life of Pi, Wreck-It Ralph was this year’s best animated feature, Safety Not Guaranteed was a terrific little sci-fi flick almost no one saw, and Moonrise Kingdom was director Wes Anderson‘s best film since The Royal Tenenbaums.
Enough with what didn’t make the list, let’s get down to discussing what did:
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From A to Z – The Top Ten Movies of 2012 Read More »
With his latest movie, Silver Linings Playbook, writer/director David O. Russell (The Fighter, Three Kings) delivers his most mainstream film to date in this adaptation of Matthew Quick‘s novel of the same name about a teacher (Bradley Cooper) who moves back in with his parents (Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver) after spending eight months in a mental institution. At times I think Russell can get too cute for his own good (see I Heart Huckabees), but Silver Linings provides the director the kind of manic characters he enjoys while still forcing him draw within the lines. The result is one of the year’s best films.
Our story begins with the release of Pat (Cooper) from his stint in the loony bin after brutally assaulting a fellow teacher who he discovers sleeping with his wife (Brea Bee). Armed with medication he refuses to take and an optimistic attitude of winning back his wife (despite being still haunted by her infidelity), putting his life back together, and looking for the silver lining in every bad situation, Pat begins his slow (and rocky) road to recovery.
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Dancing, Crazy People, and the Philadelphia EaglesRead More »
Dancing, Crazy People, and the Philadelphia Eagles Read More »
