At Graystone Manor, Anna Karenina star Keira Knightley following Arclight premiere — Wednesday, 11.14, 11:15 pm. We shared about five or six spirited minutes. (l. to r.) Anna Karenina costars Domhnall Gleeson (son of Brendan), Alicia Vikander (star of A Royal Affair), director Joe Wright, star Keira Knightley. (Getty Images — pic stolen from Daily … Read more
“In the intelligently ecstatic new adaptation of Anna Karenina, written by Tom Stoppard and directed by Joe Wright, all the world’s a stage — a 19th-century theater whose ornate confines are the setting for scenes taking place in Anna’s home town of St. Petersburg and in the social and political center of Moscow. “Steeplechase horses … Read more
David Poland, a fan of Anna Karenina, too often takes things in a glib, chit-chatty, hoo-hoo direction, but this sitdown isn’t too bad. I’m seeing it again next Tuesday night, and after all the fighting I can’t wait to re-encounter.
People who are putting down Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina for being stylistically outside the box and therefore not approval-worthy are pedestrian-minded philistines. They’re saying “whoa, this is different and audacious and so it sucks!” There’s no lamer response to artistic experimentation than this. These people need more than scolding, I’m afraid. They need to be … Read more
Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina (Focus Features, 11.16.12) will have its detractors (in my screening today five or six people were actually chuckling at it during a high-emotion scene in the late second act) but for me it’s a serious, drop-your-socks knockout — the first truly breathtaking high-style film of the year, a non-musical successor to … Read more
Yesterday afternoon the occasional, incredible stupidity of the HE commentariat manifested in spades. The trigger was my having written that NEO, who is reportedly an incorrigible truth-teller and a total tattle-tale, had better learn to keep his fucking mouth shut when the situation requires it. People have their secret passions and obsessions, and nobody likes … Read more
I just read a 3.25.24 article titled “Stop Laughing at Old Movies — audiences behaving badly at the theater, concerts, and everywhere else.” The author is Jessica Crispin, who runs a Substack blog called “The Culture We Deserve.” It reminded me of a 2012 Toronto Film Festival screening of Joe Wright‘s Anna Karenina. I was … Read more
UPDATE: The “Aaron Taylor Johnson being offered the James Bond role” rumor is untrue. This comes straight from 007 producer Barbara Broccoli. E! is saying the same thing. Earlier: The 33-year-old Aaron Taylor Johnson, a first-rate actor who’s been floundering around in mostly crap-level films for a good 15 years, is apparently the new James … Read more
The two finest films I saw at last month’s Telluride Film Festival were Joe Wright‘s exquisitely made Cyrano (UA Releasing, 12.31) and Reinaldo Marcus Green‘s King Richard (Warner Bros., 11.19). As things currently stand, these are also the most deserving Best Picture contenders…no question. Here, at long last, is the Cyrano trailer: Posted on 9.2.21: … Read more
Four days ago The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg posted his first forecast about the Best Picture Oscar race, and he put Reinaldo Marcus Green, Zach Baylin and Will Smith‘s King Richard at the top of the list. Feinberg was completely correct in doing so for a simple, undeniable reason. Of all the contenders seen so … Read more
On 9.7 I posted a short riff about the ending of Sydney Pollack‘s The Way We Were, which I’ve always regarded as one of the saddest ever. The scene also contains one of Robert Redford‘s finest acting moments. A friend has forwarded five of her saddest ending picks — Letter from an Unknown Woman (d: … Read more
Joe Wright and Erica Schmidt‘s Cyrano (UA Releasing, 12.31) had its first-anywhere screening Thursday night at the Palm, and when it ended around 9:25 pm a few things were obvious. First and foremost, this poignant romantic tale about unrequited love “works,” and that the audience (composed of the usual mixture of press people and wealthy … Read more