17 posts categorized "Hollywood"

February 17, 2022

PAPER MOON

ColeSmithey.comAn American classic.

Peter Bogdanovich's 1973 adaptation of "Addie Pray" (by Joe David Brown) is in black and white, like his first film "The Last Picture Show," another classic American film.

Depression era Kansas is a beautiful monster under László Kovács's fantastic cinematography.

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Tatum O'Neal deservedly won an Oscar for her nine-year-old performance as kid who takes to grifting like a fish to water, under the guidance of Ryan O'Neal's bible-selling con man Moses Pray.

The dad and daughter chemistry is off the charts.

Dollars add up.

ColeSmithey.com

Madeleine Kahn is terrific as Trixie Delight.

Yep.

Rated PG. 102 mins. 

5 Stars

COLE SMITHEY

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon. Thanks a lot pal!

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January 13, 2022

HOUSE OF GUCCI

COLE SMITHEY

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

Welcome!

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

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House of GucciWow! Here is the Hollywood knock out movie we've been waiting for.

Sure it could stand to lose 10 or 15 minutes but make no mistake, "House of Gucci" is Ridley Scott's masterpiece — not a word I use lightly. 

Unlike Hollywood garbage from the Marvel Industrial Complex, we get to see real actors act. Jeremy Irons's scenes are priceless for his staggering command of craft. Jared Leto doesn't just steal scenes, he demolishes them like nothing you've seen before. 

ColeSmithey.com

And as for the Queen herself, Lady Gaga gives the performance of a lifetime.

Alas, I've said too much. 

Rated R. 158 mins. 

5 Stars“ColeSmithey.com“

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

June 11, 2015

TOMORROWLAND

COLE SMITHEY

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon. Thanks a lot pal! Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cole Smithey on Patreon

 

Tomorrowland Hollywood hastens its entropic slide with a dystopic children’s story that lacks cohesion, logic, and even style. Audiences believing George Clooney’s barely-seen presence in the movie will elevate it are in for a letdown.

The same rule applies to director Brad Bird (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”) who seems to have been asleep at the wheel. Even the film’s pro-ecology theme gets muddled beyond recognition due to a litany of plot, character, and dialogue failures. “Tomorrowland” is a poster-child for everything wrong about Hollywood in 2015. How its by-committee script (it was written by four screenwriters) ever got greenlit for production is a mystery.

Heads will roll at Disney.

Screen Shot 2022-09-02 at 1.01.13 PM

The Disney-brand-aggrandizing plot centers on a futuristic theme park (a la Space Mountain) whose cement-poured surfaces of curved lines create a hermetic atmosphere of cultish aspiration.

In flashback we see the child version of Clooney’s character Frank Walker attempting to impress the powers-that-be (namely Hugh Laurie) at the 1964 New York World’s Fair with his self-made jetpack. It doesn’t actually work, but it looks nice in a retro steampunk way. The seemingly good thing that comes of Frank’s experience is meeting Athena (Raffey Cassidy) a slightly older flirt who gives Frank a button pin with a “T” (you know, for “Tomorrowland). The button has special powers that transport Frank to (you guessed it) Tomorrowland, a place you could describe as a culture-vacuum.

Screen Shot 2022-09-02 at 1.02.17 PM

The movie abruptly switches gears to follow Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a twentysomething girl who also came into possession of a Tomorrowland button at the hand of Athena. The method to Athena’s madness comes didactically clear in the film’s pasted-together climax involving some call-to-arms pap about young people rising up to repair the toxic sins of their predecessors that are killing the planet.

Screen Shot 2022-09-02 at 1.04.05 PM

“Tomorrowland” is an ideal summer movie if you objective is to get an air-conditioned nap at a handy cinema. Sadly, the movie isn’t much good for anything else.

Rated PG. 130 mins.

1 Star

Cozy Cole

Cole Smithey on Patreon

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