Since I’m not a professional film critic who’s afforded the luxury of advanced screenings, I have to watch movies in a theater like everyone else. If I miss a theatrical run, the wait for Blu-ray, VOD, or iTunes can seem interminably long. Occasionally, smaller films will release early On Demand, as Melancholia did earlier this year; but more often than not, I’m searching for them in limited theatrical release. Like an idiot, I passed on Moneyball, Drive and Martha Marcy May Marlene, the latter of which I will not see until February when it releases on disc and digital; the other two I will see next month. Although The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep opens this Friday, it will only do so in a handful of theaters to satisfy a qualifying Oscar run, so God knows when I’ll get to see it. The same goes for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Shame and Coriolanus, all films I’m eagerly awaiting, but are currently in the most limited of limited release. As far as foreign films and documentaries go, forget about it; I’m lucky if I can catch them on Netflix before the year is out.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The Best Movies of 2011…For Now
Posted: December 27, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Best of 2011, Film, Movies
The Curious Case of Jessica Chastain
Posted: December 11, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Brad Pitt, Coriolanus, Jessica Chastain, Meryl Streep, Take Shelter, The Help, The Tree of Life
Who in the world is Jessica Chastain? And more importantly, where did she come from? As if by sleight of hand, she seems to have appeared out of the air, clear and fully formed. So far this year she has co-starred in five films, several of them critically-acclaimed, including one by legendary director Terrence Malick. Soon, she will be seen in Coriolanus, where she takes on Shakespeare and Ralph Fiennes.
None of this would seem especially notable for a prolific actor. But Chastain deserves special mention: having only appeared in three films in three years, she is now a part of six in twelve months. She was recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and won Best Supporting Actress from the New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association. If you put stock in the awards pundits’ early predictions, she will likely be nominated for the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Awards. That’s quite the impressive achievement for an actor previously unknown to the world.
Whew! Catching up on six movies I watched over the past week.
Still to come: The Wolf Man (1941).
