Sir Anthony Hopkins delivers yet another top-notch performance as an aging father with dementia in The Father, which is emotionally moving. When the film premiered during Sundance earlier this year, Hopkins was in the closing weeks of the Oscar race for The Two Popes. While he may have lost out, he’s back in the running and is almost certainly the front-runner. It’s not unlike Hopkins to deliver a masterclass performance and here is on display…
"AFI FEST 2020: The Father"
Grant, which aired earlier this year during Memorial Day weekend on the History Channel, is now available to take home on DVD. While Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton biography inspired a musical, his definitive Ulysses S. Grant biography, Grant, led to a three-part miniseries. Chernow produced the miniseries alongside Appian Way’s Jennifer Davisson and Leonardo DiCaprio. Like several History Channel documentary miniseries, they weave in dramatic recreations, interviews, and archival images. The main focus is Grant…
"Grant: History Miniseries Available On DVD"
Sienna Miller delivers one of her finest performances in Wander Darkly but the film’s narrative approach is where viewers might get lost. Adrienne (Sienna Miller) and Matteo (Diego Luna) are in a car accident shortly after the film starts. Following the accident, the film takes us on a confusing narrative where the two are in a different sort of state. We’re seeing them through the events of moments the duo shared together at previous points…
"AFI FEST 2020: Wander Darkly"
Uncle Frank is a period piece following a closeted gay man who is reluctantly returning home for his father’s funeral and unresolved trauma. While conditions have improved to an extent for the LGBTQ community, things are certainly better than they were in 1973. This is when South Carolinian teenager Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) heads off to New York University. The move leads to a reunion with literature professor and Beth’s uncle, Frank (Paul Bettany). What…
"AFI FEST 2020: Uncle Frank"
Nine Days features a unique take on the concept of life as one man has the sole power to decide which souls will be born on Earth. Will (Winston Duke) spends his days watching human life on older television sets thanks to videos recorded by Kyo (Benedict Wong). Think of him as a gatekeeper as he watches people living their daily lives. It’s a thankless job but I suppose somebody has to do it. The…
"AFI FEST 2020: Nine Days"
Pink Skies Ahead takes us back to the Los Angeles of the late 1990s when a college students drops out and moves back in with her parents. Aspiring writer Winona (Jessica Barden) drops out of college and gets diagnosed with an anxiety disorder after moving back home with her parents, Robert (Michael McKean) and Pamela (Marcia Gay Harden). She’s in denial about Dr. Cotton’s (Henry Winkler) diagnosis. After all, she’s never had a panic attack…
"AFI FEST 2020: Pink Skies Ahead"
Ammonite seeks to tell the story of paleontologist Mary Anning but there’s more here than meets the eye when it comes to actual truth. When we first meet Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) in the 1840s, the paleontologist already has her best days behind her. The Lyme Regis resident now resorts to hunting fossils and hoping that wealthy tourists will buy them. This is really the only way that she can support both herself and her…
"NewFest 2020: Ammonite"
Riz Ahmed delivers a captivating performance as a heavy metal drummer that is beginning to lose his hearing in Sound of Metal. Within the film’s opening minutes Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is experiencing hearing loss. At the beginning, the loss is intermittent but as any musician knows from experience, it will only get worse. This is exactly what happens as the plot moves forward. However, technology has advanced to where Ruben is set on pursuing a…
"AFI FEST 2020: Sound of Metal"
I’m Your Woman, directed by Julia Hart and starring Rachel Brosnahan, owes its influence to the 1970s classic crime dramas. Here’s the thing about the classic crime dramas: they were told from a man’s point of view. What Julia Hart and Jordan Horowitz do with their script is change up the genre. Surburban housewife Jean (Rachel Brosnahan) is front and center in this throwback thriller. You know it’s a throwback as soon as you see…
"AFI FEST 2020: I’m Your Woman"
Director James Fletcher and political consultant Anthony Scaramucci spoke to Solzy at the Movies about The Accidental President. The Accidental President will open in theaters on October 16, 2020. A VOD release will follow on October 27, 2020. The Accidental President is one of a number of Trump-related documentaries this fall. Was there some sort of directors meeting where everyone decided they were going to release their films so close together? James Fletcher: Well, Danielle,…
"James Fletcher, Anthony Scaramucci talk The Accidental President"