Tag: ben foster

Screening Room: ‘Inferno’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Books, Film - NewLeave a comment

Felicity Jones;Tom Hanks

Well, another year, and another Dan Brown thriller comes to the screen. That would be Tom Hanks on the left as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, and Felicity Jones on the right as his latest brunette sidekick. This time out, Langdon’s hot on the trail of a genocidal madman who loves Dante and wants to destroy humanity. To Florence!

Inferno opens wide this weekend. My review is at Film Journal International:

“It’s good to have you back, Professor,” says Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) to Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) as they dash toward another stage in the latest Ron Howard-directed Dan Brown symbological scavenger hunt. She’s right. Hanks may not be exactly “America’s dad,” as he spoofed in a recent “Saturday Night Live” skit (“How ya doin’, champ?”), but there remains a reason that he’s one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. As Langdon, the Harvard symbologist (still not a real job) who gets sucked into world-changing conspiracies with the regularity of “Murder, She Wrote”’s Jessica Fletcher, he’s usually the smartest guy in the room but only broadcasts it when there’s a need for some expository lecturing…

Here’s the trailer:

Screening Room: ‘The Program’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - New, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The_Program_poster

In the new bicycling melodrama (a category that yes, does sound oxymoronic) The Program, director Stephen Frears tells the story of the rise and fall (and fall) of Lance Armstrong, played by Ben Foster.

The Program is opening this week. My review is at Film Journal International:

There is almost no other modern athletic hero beside Lance Armstrong who was more lionized in his success and more scorned in his downfall. His rise to fame was the kind of story that sports journalists live for: A previously good but unremarkable biker doesn’t just beat a cancer diagnosis, he follows it up by winning one Tour de France after another in unprecedented fashion. His ignominious fall from grace was a story that any journalist would want…

Here’s the trailer:

Now Playing: ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - New4 Comments
Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck fiercely in love in 'Ain't Them Bodies Saints'.
Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck fiercely in love in ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’.

aintthembodiessaints-posterThe award for this year’s least likely to be remembered movie title goes to David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, a Terence Malick-inflected story of a young Texas couple (Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara) separated by prison after a crime spree. Keith Carradine and Ben Foster also star in this gorgeously photographed but rambling film.

My review ran in Film Racket:

Sunsets flood David Lowery’s soulful robber-on-the-run story, lens-flaring the screen and painting everything in a rustic ochre patina. It’s beautiful but gets in the way, as though distracting writer/director Lowery from getting to the business at hand. The cinematography is by Bradford Young (Pariah), whose patient lens captures the dusky halo of tree-shaded Texas streets and grassy fields under a humbling sky. What it can’t do is transform Lowery’s stretched-out short of a piece into a full-fledged story…

Here’s the trailer:

New in Theaters: ‘360’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - NewLeave a comment

Fernando Meirelles’s new drama 360 looks on the surface to be another of those broad tapestry films like Babel and Crash—set as it is in multiple cities from Denver to London to Vienna and packing enough thespian firepower for one of those off-year Woody Allen misfires. But except for an unnecessary voiceover at the opening and climax, which tries to tie a loose ribbon around what we’ve just seen, it’s not nearly so self-important or desperate. Because of that, it will also (perversely) probably be much less popular than the films mentioned above, even though there’s life practically bursting out of every pristinely shot scene…

360 is opening today in limited release but should expand around the country fairly soon, given the Oscar firepower in the cast. My full, mostly positive review is at Film Journal International.

Check out the trailer here: