Eleanor Ringel Cater Archives

Movie column by Eleanor Ringel Cater

Eleanor Ringel Cater

‘Never Look Away’ – a character-rich film set in Germany from 1937 to 1966

February 18, 2019, 9:56 am/0 Comments

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s new movie, “Never Look Away,” has been nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. And no wonder. It has the epic incident-laden sweep of something by Tolstoy or Dickens.

If von Donnersmarck’s name is in the least bit familiar, it’s probably for one of two reasons.

‘Cold War’ – a well-acted and ‘luminous’ black-and-white movie

February 11, 2019, 11:08 am/0 Comments

The title – “Cold War”– reflects the 15-year-long stalemate between its protagonists. That said, their romance blows both hot and cold.

This expertly done, bleakly ironic film, shot in luminous black-and-white by Pawel Pawlikowski, the director of the art-house hit, “Ida,” follows a love affair from its irreverent beginning to its eerie end.

‘Stan & Ollie’ – a poignant, loving look into iconic comedy team

February 3, 2019, 12:41 pm/1 Comment

One difficulty facing anyone who writes about the lovely new movie, “Stan & Ollie” is, do people still know who Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are?

I asked a culturally conscious Gen-Xer and she knew them. How? From the oft-glimpsed poster on “Friends,” where they’re sharing a bed.

‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ – a quietly poetic, yet courageous, movie

January 28, 2019, 10:01 am/0 Comments

“If Beale Street Could Talk” is the sort of nice movie you’d like to take home and introduce to your parents.

That doesn’t mean it’s a movie about nice things. Racism, poverty, rape, teen pregnancy, bigoted cops – all are part of the mix. No wonder. The movie is based on a 1974 novel by James Baldwin.

‘Destroyer’ – Nicole Kidman acts beautifully in unpredictable movie

January 21, 2019, 3:23 pm/1 Comment

“Destroyer” sounds like an old Steven Seagal movie or a new Marvel villain.

It’s neither. Rather, this is a totally unexpected picture, a kind of sunbaked film noir, starring a remarkable Nicole Kidman as an LAPD cop at the very end of her tether.

‘On the Basis of Sex’ – a carefully done movie of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s early days

January 14, 2019, 11:11 am/1 Comment

Which of the following was the reason Ruth Bader Ginsburg was turned down by a dozen Manhattan law firms in the late ’50s, after graduating at the top of her class from Harvard and Columbia?

‘Mary Queen of Scots’ – a confusing movie with noble intentions

January 7, 2019, 11:50 am/1 Comment

Rivals at last year’s Oscars, Sairose Ronan (“Lady Bird”) and Margot Robbie (“I, Tonya”) both lost to Frances McDormand in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

In “Mary Queen of Scots,” they lose to a confused script and Josie Rourke’s confusing direction.

‘VICE’ – movie depicts how Dick Cheney changed the role of VP

December 24, 2018, 1:33 pm/0 Comments

About 20 minutes into “VICE,” the new bio-pic about former Vice President Dick Cheney, I scribbled this note:

“Geez, this guy must’ve sat through ‘The Big Short’ a dozen times.”

Close, but, as they used to say, no cigar.

This guy directed “The Big Short.”

‘Vox Lux’ – movie starts with a bang, leads to boredom

December 16, 2018, 11:34 pm/0 Comments

“She did possess that that proverbial something,” says narrator Willem Dafoe about the rock-star protagonist of “Vox Lux.”

The movie possesses that “proverbial something,” too, but whether that “something” is something you’d enjoy is debatable.

‘The Favourite’ – Olivia Colman’s Queen Anne steals the show

December 10, 2018, 2:36 pm/0 Comments

You have to be some kind of an actor to steal a movie from both Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone.

Well, Olivia Colman is some kind of an actor. The extraordinary kind.

She plays Queen Anne, an uncertain and often infantile monarch who ruled England in the early 1700’s.

‘The Green Book’ – one of the best movies of the year

December 3, 2018, 5:24 pm/2 Comments

Being a native Atlantan, I grew up in the last gasp of the despicable Jim Crow South. However, there were things I learned from the remarkable movie, “Green Book,” that I never knew.

‘At Eternity’s Gate’ – Willem Dafoe as Van Gogh is Oscar material

November 26, 2018, 12:15 am/1 Comment

Allow me to share where I’m coming from as I write about “At Eternity’s Gate,” Julian Schnabel’s wildly uneven, ultimately brilliant film about Vincent Van Gogh.

I love Van Gogh’s paintings. I love that his genius went unrecognized during his lifetime. I love that he went nuts.

‘Fantastic Beasts’ – an entertaining, yet confusing, sequel

November 19, 2018, 9:07 am/0 Comments

As a trained professional (more or less), I’ve been called on to decipher everyone from Bergman and Tarkovsky to Cronenberg and Lynch.

I wasn’t always successful, but at least I felt comfortable at bat.

‘What They Had’ – a family comes to terms with Alzheimer’s

November 11, 2018, 6:09 pm/0 Comments

It’s Christmas and the family has gathered in Chicago. During an otherwise normal holiday dinner, the hostess, Ruth (Blythe Danner), with a sweet smile asks her guests, “And how do you two know each other?”

Given that Nick (Michael Shannon) and Bridget (Hilary Swank) are brother and sister and Ruth is their mom, it’s a bit awkward. It is also a bittersweet reminder that her Alzheimer’s isn’t getting any better.

‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ – true story about Lee Israel’s fake letters

November 5, 2018, 7:59 am/0 Comments

“I’m a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker!”

So proclaims Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), the sad-sack, sourly funny anti-heroine of “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Set in the early 1990s, the movie is based on the true story of a writer who, having had some success with biographies (including a New York Times best-seller), found herself at an unfortunate impasse.

‘Beautiful Boy’ – Timothée Chalamet’s performance as Nic carries film

October 28, 2018, 9:17 pm/1 Comment

“Beautiful Boy” has one beauty of a performance by Timothée Chalamet and a pretty darn good one by Steve Carell.

Whether their work is enough to make up for the film’s problems is hard to say. It may depend on your interest in the subject matter: addiction in its most devious and cruel incarnation.

‘First Man’ – Neil Armstrong movie never gets off the ground

October 21, 2018, 8:21 pm/0 Comments

Houston, we have a problem.

“First Man” is worse than a bore. It is a slog – the most crushingly earthbound movie imaginable about going to the moon.

Forget mystery or poetry; this is a paean to strong silent men and mid-century technology. It’s pure white bread, gummy and well-chewed.

‘The Old Man and the Gun’ – actor Robert Redford still robbing banks – now as Forrest Tucker

October 15, 2018, 9:11 am/0 Comments

One measure of the affection (and, yes, lust) that has accrued to Robert Redford over his decades in movies is, when he walks into a bank in “The Old Man and the Gun,” we reflexively wonder, is he “walking” like an old man or does he, at 82, now walk like an old man?

Actually, in keeping with the delicacy of the acting ego, Redford is playing younger than his age.

‘A Star is Born’ – Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga carry the movie

October 8, 2018, 8:58 am/0 Comments

A star isn’t exactly born in the newest iteration of the well-worn classic. After all, most of us have heard of Lady Gaga somehow, somewhere.

Besides, this isn’t even – technically – her feature film debut. According to IMDB, she’s already appeared on the big screen in “Machete Kills” “Muppets Most Wanted” (as herself) and “Men in Black 3” as “alien on TV monitors.”

‘Colette’ – a wobbly #MeToo movie of la Belle Époque stars Keira Knightley

September 30, 2018, 10:11 pm/1 Comment

Those of us with a particular fondness for the old “Seinfeld” series might recall the episode in which Jerry and the gang consider going to a movie called “Rochelle, Rochelle: A Young Girl’s Strange Erotic Journey from Milan to Minsk.”

Keira Knightley’s utterly silly new movie isn’t called “Colette, Colette,” but it might as well have been.