The Focus Features: 10-Movie Spotlight Collection is a good selection of dramas, some better than others and one that is a personal favorite of mine (Lost in Translation). That being said, this is only worth picking up if you don’t own any of the 10 films, though the cost per movie is reasonable.
Richard Jewell, based on the true story about the 1996 Olympic bombing, is director Clint Eastwood’s latest and stars Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm and Olivia Wilde.
The story in of itself isn’t always strong, but easily made up with some great performances from Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer, though if you want to know more about Ginsberg, the documentary RBG is the better way to go.
There must be something about Kathy Bates starring in a Stephen King film adaptation and in Dolores Claiborne, she deserved the Oscar with a wonderfully subdued performance alongside a respectable cast.
Misery is one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations though in fairness, I’m not exactly a King die-hard. Still, the movie is an successful character-drama with some psychological thrills thrown in for extra measure and features strong performances from James Caan and Kathy Bates.
Although I didn’t really care for the format of this season on American Horror Story, or the style of the final few episodes, there is some tense atmosphere and the performances at least weren’t bad, with Sarah Paulson being the highlight.
There really was no need for a Bad Santa 2 as the original has become a holiday cult classic and it has been 13 years since. Sure, it does have the mean streak that made the first popular, unfortunately the humor mostly falls flat.
Complete Unknown is a movie that excels more due to the acting, that of Rachel Weisz and, to some extent, Michael Shannon rather than the plot or writing, but on those it was at least compelling storytelling.
Melissa McCarthy continues her usual schlock in The Boss and teaming up with her director/husband following the atrocious Tammy, this might be a step above that movie but not by much as the laughs are few and far between and worse yet, is kind of mean-spirited at times.
Shadows and Fog is one of the more forgotten films in Woody Allen’s repartee and for the most part, it’s not a bad little comedy though it is typical Allen in terms of his performance and writing. Clearly it’s nowhere near the quality of Manhattan or Annie Hall, or more recently Midnight in Paris, but it might be worth a watch.
Tammy is yet another lame comedy (with attempts at sappy drama) from McCarthy and company following the tepid Identity Thief but I’m hoping at some point the actress, who can be funny, widens her range instead playing the same type of characters made famous in Bridesmaid.
Dick Tracy is hardly a perfect movie but star/director Warren Beatty does a tremendous job translating the source material into the feature film format. Between the art direction, production and costume designs, the visuals on the movie are fantastic and Beatty as Tracy was perfect.