Legend
Dec24

Legend

Multiplici-ZzZzs Starring: Tom Hardy, Tom Hardy Review written by Robert D. Patrick Legend may be billed as a liquor-lacquered, knuckle-thumping barrage of brogue and barrels, but the film has a neutered temperament and a barely palpitating heart. Tom Hardy is present, growling in a thick cockney accent that would put curdled milk to shame. But behind the frame of this classic car are the pedals of a Big Wheel. Director Brian...

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Listen To Me Marlon
Aug07

Listen To Me Marlon

Re-branding a Legend Review written by Robert D. Patrick As of late, documentaries seem to be tiring of the Ken Burns batting stance. Panning over pictures, ad nauseam, will not suffice. Audiences are younger and less adept to the vibrating string scores and mousy historians of old. With Kurt Cobain: About a Son, Montage of Heck, and now, with director Stevan Riley’s Listen To Me Marlon, directors are beginning to use the...

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True Story
Apr17

True Story

Close-Ups: The Movie Starring: Jonah Hill, James Franco Review written by Robert D. Patrick The gossamer web that director Rupert Goold weaves is more of the plastic bag, Halloween variety. Fake, difficult to pull apart, and without a genuine aesthetic. True Story is a film about two desperate men interrogating one another by spitting venom through their incisors. It’s a film that prides itself on the weight of a clock’s...

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Selma
Jan09

Selma

In Search of a Director Starring: David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson Review written by Robert D. Patrick Martin Luther King, Jr.’s fervent cogency was an unmovable force; he splintered all forms of bullheaded resistance in his toilsome path to equality. The Atlanta born pastor’s power was built around strategic diction – each word was crafted with ardor and articulation. Punctuation, delivery, and restraint were weapons in...

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The Better Angels
Nov21

The Better Angels

Abe-bout a Boy Starring: Jason Clarke, Diane Kruger Review written by Robert D. Patrick The Better Angels offers no levity, no flecks of light or booming laughter. No school taught anecdotes or conventional wisdom. The Better Angels, instead, leaves you with sharp monochrome images of buzzing insects and weathered faces. Arboreal light and rough, wooden chairs. The synopsis will tell you that this film is chiefly about Abraham...

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Life Itself
Jul04

Life Itself

All Things Once and Forever Review written by Robert D. Patrick It’s the most labored, arduous, sometimes portentous profession. Bereft of pity – “you watch movies? that cant be hard” – and pockmarked with confusion. The film critic is irascible and snooty; a divisive force with cloven hooves. A film critic, to the public’s eye, is often times an affluent, pear-shaped Magoo. They exist to be pelted...

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The Railway Man
Apr17

The Railway Man

A Train Called War Starring: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman Review written by Tom Bevis “I have a small problem,” Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) tells his veteran cohorts in the crisp shade of a Veteran’s Club, “which I suspect this small gathering might find interesting.” Thus are the first spoken words of The Railway Man and many of its trailers. But the film has misled you. The Railway Man has led you to believe it will be a war-themed...

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Saving Mr. Banks
Dec19

Saving Mr. Banks

DiZzzZZzney’s World Starring: Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks Review written by Robert D. Patrick Saving Mr. Banks is about the daffy, carbonated personality of Walt Disney and the buttoned, stiff-shirted sensibilities of author P.L. Travers (don’t you dare call her Pamela, or she’ll have biblical hornets descend upon you). Of course the emotionally marred, stuffy protagonist ends up rosy despite her thorns by the end of...

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Hyde Park on Hudson
Dec26

Hyde Park on Hudson

Look Who’s Coming to Dinner Review written by Robert Patrick Starring: Bill Murray, Laura Linney The frail frame and steely resilience of one of our most beloved presidents and the staccato, machine gun spurts of one of the most misunderstood kings in England’s history. What do you get when you put them together? Fiery, moving portraits or plot points about hot dogs? Apparently plot points about hot dogs. Bill Murray looks...

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The Impossible
Dec21

The Impossible

Naomi Watts Cries; Upset Review written by Robert Patrick Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor There is a scene in the 2005 film, Ellie Parker, where Naomi Watts, sitting in a vehicle, challenges her friend to see “who can cry first.” In the following moments, the camera breathes on Watts’ neck, tightly framing her wincing face, as she groans and weeps uncontrollably. Watts’ face, contorting and strained,...

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