Author Archives: Eleanor Ringel Cater

Kristin Stewart and her cell phone co-star in “Personal Shopper,” a ghost story for the cyber age. Since Stewart always looks slightly haunted, you could almost say it’s typecasting.

However, the typecasting here is of a different sort. As she did in “The Clouds of Sils Maria,” Stewart is again playing the personal assistant to a powerful woman. But while the core of “Sils Maria” was the give-and-take between her and Juliette Binoche (the self-absorbed actor who employs her), the boss in “Personal Shopper” is more a plot device than anything else. This movie is all about Stewart; thankfully, she’s such an intriguing actor, she can handle it.

In a manner of speaking, the Viet Cong meet King Kong in “Kong: Skull Island,” the newest iteration on the timeless theme of a gorilla the size of the Ritz.

Actually, the Kong we meet here is the size of several Ritz’s – plus the Empire State Building.

If you don’t already know who Logan is, you may not be all that interested in reading a review of a movie named “Logan.”

But what if I told you Logan is the alter ego of the X-Man known as Wolverine, the superhero (of a sort) Hugh Jackman has played for the last 17 years?

Move over, Sacheen Littlefeather

You are no longer the craziest thing ever to happen on Oscar night.

Ms. Littlefeather, as some of you may recall, was the semi-faux Native American sent by Marlon Brando to pick up his Oscar the night he won for “The Godfather.”

Recently, there was a full-page ad for “Lion” in the Sunday New York Times. Given that the film has been nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, this isn’t especially surprising.

What is surprising is, instead of the usual critics’ quotes, the ad features ringing endorsements from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and UNICEF.

It’s not every film that offers a sex scene involving a petit four, but then, “Toni Erdman” is not every film. It’s utterly, insistently unique.

An absurdist dark comedy with a thoughtful subtext, Maren Ade’s German comedy is both seriously silly and, well, seriously serious.

It’s been a while since I’ve walked out on a movie.

This past week, I walked out on two: “The Comedian” and “A Dog’s Purpose.”

More pseudo-thriller than psycho-thriller, “Split” is like “The Three Faces of Eve” (or “Sybil”) meets “The Silence of the Lambs.”

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a M. Night. Shyamalan movie – last year’s “The Visit” had hinted at a return to his “The Sixth Sense” glory days – along comes this mess.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Not according to Ray Kroc, the man who super-sized McDonald’s before Morgan Spurlock was a twinkle in anyone’s eye.

“Patriots Day” is apparently what locals call the day of the Boston Marathon.

It also makes a most fitting title for this tautly told movie about the Boston Marathon everyone remembers: The one in 2013 when a pair of bombs went off near the finish line, killing three and injuring over 250.

Despite all the bad stuff we experienced (reel and real), 2016 deserves respect for bringing so many important – and often little-known – true stories to the screen. Among them, “Free State of Jones,” “Jackie,” “Loving,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” “Sully,” “Snowden,” “Masterminds,” and “The Birth of a Nation.”

Now add to that list the very affecting (and effective) “Hidden Figures,” about some African-American math whizzes who were crucial to NASA in the early ‘60s. Given that NASA was still stationed in Langley, Va., and Virginia still had strictly enforced segregation laws, this was not business as usual.

As both director and star of “Fences,” Denzel Washington, well, swings for the fences. And while he doesn’t quite hit a home run, he does manage a solid triple. And, almost as importantly, he brilliantly eases himself through the transition from leading man to character actor/star.

“Fences” is based on August Wilson’s masterful 1983 play which starred a galvanizing bigger-than-life James Earl Jones as Troy Maxson, a garbage worker in late 1950s Pittsburgh. Jones won a Tony for his portrayal, as did Washington for the 2010 revival.

Here’s how you know the new film “Jackie” is working: You move from trying to decide just how credible Natalie Portman’s impersonation is to thinking about anything and everything except that.

Portman, who won a much-deserved Oscar for 2010’s “Black Swan,” doesn’t look in the least like Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (the Onassis connection is still in the future). Portman’s face is more oval, her nose is stronger.

Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain), the protagonist of the lively political thriller, “Miss Sloane,” is one tough cookie. Some might even say of her, “Such a nasty woman.”

No, Sloane isn’t running for president. She’s a high-powered Washington lobbyist, whip-smart and utterly ruthless. And her tactics are as amoral as they are inventive.

“Manchester By the Sea” is the reason people keep going to the movies. Because, despite all the crummy ones, there’s always the chance you’ll stumble across one like this – a movie so powerful, so beautifully done on just about every level, that it’s instantly etched in your memory. And your heart.

Few movies can handle that delicate juggling act in which profound grief alternates with wickedly well-observed humor. Don’t get me wrong. “Manchester” is, ultimately, a picture riddled with sorrow and unspeakable tragedy. Yet it is also oddly optimistic. A newborn cries at a funeral service – a birth astride a grave, as Beckett would’ve said.

Not even Hollywood could have trumped up a better double-entendre title than “Loving.” The word is both the name of the movie and the name of the couple at its center.

“Loving” is based on the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving. In 1958, they married – and in doing so, broke the law. You see, she (Ruth Negga) was African-American and he (Joel Edgerton) was white. And though they exchanged vows in Washington, D.C., they wanted to live in their home state of Virginia. Which, at that time, forbid interracial marriages.

There is a sweet, surprising mystery at the heart of Denis Villeneuve’s otherwise rigorously cerebral sci-fi film, “Arrival.” I can’t tell you what it is because, well, I’m not entirely sure I understand what it is. But I do know the picture is ineffably moving in a totally unexpected way.

“Hacksaw Ridge” lets us know what we’re in for with its opening shot: a montage of soldiers in flames, caught in a slo-mo inferno.

Then it’s back stateside – rural Virginia where Desmond Doss lives with his brother, his beaten-down mom (Rachel Griffiths) and his dad (Hugo Weaving), a raging alcoholic who does the beating. His constant fury is an unwelcome residual of his service in World War I.

“American Pastoral” is a tale of patricide. Not directly, but ultimately.

It’s also a tale of little girls who were supposed to grow up to be Audrey Hepburn and instead grew up to be Squeaky Fromme.

Finally, it’s the tale of a man whose life was meant to be perfect, but turned out to be anything but.