On April 15, 1964, construction began on the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. chose a 62-acre site near downtown and converted it into a major league sports arena with a price tag of $18 million. The city convinced the Milwaukee Braves to move and become the Atlanta Braves as we know them […]
Tag: movie
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RIP Christopher Plummer – a remarkable actor with an extraordinary career
Christopher Plummer has left us at age 91. A remarkable actor, he could play everything from Shakespearean kings and Incan royalty to an addled Holocaust survivor and an anti-Nazi Edelweiss-loving Austrian.
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‘Ready or Not’ – entertaining little movie, but no cult classic
The traditional vow, “Till death do us part” gains a new urgency for Grace (Samara Weaving), a bride who discovers how perilous a wedding night can be in “Ready or Not.”
A disposable, yet entertaining little movie that never quite manages the blend of slasher and satire it aspires to, “Ready or Not” does feature an admirable performance by Weaving (niece of Hugo) and enough twists to keep you interested (if not always amused or terrified).
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‘The Kitchen’ – wonderful cast, but movie is all over the place
“The Kitchen” is about three women who can handle the heat and still want out of the kitchen. They want to move into The Kitchen, as in Hell’s Kitchen, that peculiar slice of Manhattan in the 40s and 50s stretching from 8thAvenue west.
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‘Midsommar’ – a deeply unsettling horror movie
If nothing else, “Midsommar” may make you re-think that Scandinavian vacation you’ve been considering.
As anyone who saw last year’s shocking “Hereditary” knows, filmmaker Ari Aster doesn’t fool around. “Midsommar” is a horror movie and a half.
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‘Yesterday’ – a ‘charmingly nostalgic’ movie of a Beatles-less world
I believe in “Yesterday.”
I didn’t think I would. I’d seen the trailers and it sounded like a clever but one-gimmick movie. However, while it doesn’t do everything right, “Yesterday” sometimes takes your breath away. Not bad for a mid-summer non-superhero movie
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‘Late Night’ – Emma Thompson is movie’s ace in the hole
“Late Night” is both too little and too late.
I say that regretfully. The idea of a workplace comedy attuned to #MeToo and #TimesUp would certainly be welcome, especially in the summer when Hollywood all but posts signs saying “No Girls Allowed.”
But writer/star Mindy Kaling simply hasn’t come up with the goods.
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‘The Souvenir’ – Tilda Swinton and her daughter play drab roles
“The Souvenir” is a portrait of the artist as a young doormat.Set in London in the ‘80s (i.e., no computers, cellphones, but the occasional IRA attack at Harrods), the movie features Tilda Swinton, looking as close to ordinary as you’ve ever seen her, and her real-life daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne, here cast as her movie daughter, Julie.
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‘Rocketman’ – a jukebox version of Elton John, who deserves more
Going in, you already know that last year’s unexpected hit, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” would be either the best thing or the worst thing to happen to “Rocketman,” the new Elton John movie.The parallels are so strong: similar time frames, similar problems (being gay in a pre-woke world), similar storylines (success is more likely to bring cocaine than happiness).
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‘All is True’ – an older Shakespeare struggles in retirement
Imagine Shakespeare, not in love, but up to his ears in inducements from AARP.That’s the framework, more or less, for Kenneth Branagh’s “All Is True,” a look at the Bard in retirement.The year is 1613. His beloved Globe Theatre has burned to the ground and the playwright takes that as a sign it’s time to move back to the country and retire in the…um…loving?…bosom of his family.
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‘The White Crow’ – film spotlights Russian ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev
“The White Crow” is so-so which, given what it’s trying to do, is almost a rave. Some geniuses seem replicable on film. I’ve bought versions of Orson Welles, Marilyn Monroe. And Elvis. But I’m not so sure how I’d do with a Brando or a Hepburn (Katharine or Audrey). Or a Rudolph Nureyev.
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‘Tolkien’ – a pretty, but dull, film about J.R.R. Tolkien
A much better title for the squishily disappointing new bio-flick, “Tolkien” would be “Bored of the Rings.”Oh, how I wish I’d made that up myself, but it’s stolen from a National Lampoon parody that came out around 1970 when the author’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy was at the height of its popularity on college campuses.
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‘Red Joan’ – Judi Dench stars in disappointing espionage tale
“I don’t want a lawyer,” protests Judi Dench in the first scene of “Red Joan.” “I haven’t done anything wrong.”Oh, but she has. She’s done this movie.
A fictionalized account of the life of British spy, Melita Norwood – here called Joan Stanley – played in old age, by Dench and played in full bloom of her espionage career by Sophie Cookson.
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‘Avengers: Endgame’ – a pretty darn good movie from Marvel
There isn’t enough Loki. In fact, there is maybe, at most, 45 seconds of Loki.
“Avengers: Endgame” is, in every way, Loki deficient. Otherwise, it’s a pretty darn good movie.
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‘Isn’t it Romantic’ – often funny, but lead should have been Amy Schumer
Remember all those movies where the protagonists somehow switched bodies? (“Freaky Friday” — both versions — being the shining example).In the same vein, I really wish Amy Schumer and Rebel Wilson could’ve switched movies.
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‘Greta’ – movie slides easily from shock to schlock
The customer, a petite European redhead, has just been poured a glass of Chablis by her nervous waitron. Taking a sip, she says appraisingly, “It’s like you. Promises a lot, then disappoints.”The same could be said about “Greta,” a stalker-cum-Bluebeard story with a twist. The customer happens to be the title character, Greta (Isabelle Huppert), a sixty-something widow living in Brooklyn.
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‘Vox Lux’ – movie starts with a bang, leads to boredom
“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.
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‘The Favourite’ – Olivia Colman’s Queen Anne steals the show
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.
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‘The Green Book’ – one of the best movies of the year
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.
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‘The Old Man and the Gun’ – actor Robert Redford still robbing banks – now as Forrest Tucker
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.
