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Archive for December, 2016

Review: SMART

— by BEV QUESTAD — If an animal is up a tree, down a sewer pipe, over a cliff, or stuck in ocean quicksand, who do you call? In LA, it is SMART, the Specialized Mobile Animal Rescue Team for Los Angeles Animal Services. I told myself, “Don’t watch it!” — sure this documentary[...]

Review: Elle

— by RON WILKINSON — Most mystery thrillers begin with a little mystery and build up the tension until the end when all is explained, to the amazement of the audience. In Isabelle Huppert’s films, the story starts with a little mystery and ends with an even bigger mystery at the end. P[...]

Review: The 24 Hour War

— by RON WILKINSON — Directors Nate Adams and Adam Carolla roll out the big guns for this gear head documentary about the toughest and highest stakes feud in auto racing history. The battlefield was Le Mans, a 24-hour race of speed, handling and endurance that has become legend. For thos[...]

Review: On The Map

— by BEV QUESTAD — When depressed in a dark hole with enemies lurking on all sides, what’s the best antidote? Distraction. Though she had been repeatedly attacked and even though her very existence was entangled in the frozen core of the Cold War conflict, Israel’s people were still [...]

Review: The Salesman

— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Asghar Farhadi, already known for his simmering “A Separation,” has raised the bar even further with this remarkable story within a story. “The Salesman” stars Shahab Hosseini as theatre director Emad and Taraneh Alidoosti as his wife [...]

Review: Nocturnal Animals

— by RON WILKINSON — Writer/director Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” (based on the novel “Tony & Susan” by Austin Wright) comes out of the gate running with his second feature film. The first film, “A Single Man,” was a dark examination of social mor[...]

Review: Jackie

— by RON WILKINSON — Director Pablo Larraín and writer Noah Oppenheim took on a prodigious task when they chose to recreate Camelot in the 21st century. In a way, it was a hopeless task, like asking an actor to play Hitler. Nobody can duplicate the real thing because one simply had to b[...]

Review: Miss Sloane

— by RON WILKINSON — Director John Madden has had better days. After great films like “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” and “Shakespeare in Love,” this one is a clinker. The direction is fine but the movie is terminally hampered by the scree[...]

Office Christmas Party: Three Trailers

— by JESSIKA OWENS — Anybody who has ever had an office job can probably safely say they have fantasized about letting loose and just destroying the office in a drunken rage whilst watching co-workers act like bumbling fools. Perhaps I’m speaking for myself, but it sounds fun in my[...]

Review: Kate Plays Christine

— by BEV QUESTAD — While one reviewer states “this movie is artistic suicide,” another thinks it is ground-breaking. Based on the bizarre on-air 1974 suicide of news host Christine Chubbuck, the film follows Kate Lyn Sheil’s preparation for the movie role. She goes through news arc[...]

James Bond now has a track at Peyragudes

The 007, like James Bond, is the name of the new blue (panoramic) trail (2760 m long), which now provides a ski back from the top of the Sérias chairlift to the Ballestas area. The station of Peyragudes was baptised on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the filming of the movie “Tomorrow[...]