Tag: Hugh Jackman

Screening Room: ‘The Front Runner’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Adaptations, Film - NewLeave a comment

In Jason Reitman’s new political satire, Hugh Jackman plays Gary Hart on the verge of destroying his meteoric political ascent.

My review is at PopMatters:

Based on Matt Bai’s 2014 book All the Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid, The Front Runner starts off as a zippy election comedy about the undoing of Senator Gary Hart’s presidential ambitions, but collapses under the weight of its serious intent. When we first see Hart (Hugh Jackman), he’s lost the bid for the 1984 Democratic nomination. Director Jason Reitman shoots that opening scene and many others as if he’s been watching a lot of Nashville, tracking the casual chatters between reporters and campaign staffers as they wend through a crush of news vans and onlookers trying to get a glimpse of history…

New in Theaters: ‘Prisoners’

On By chrisbarsantiIn Film - NewLeave a comment
Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Prisoners'.
Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Prisoners’.

prisoners-posterWhenever Hugh Jackman leaves Wolverine-land to return to the world of real-ish moviemaking, he leaves a spotty record. For every Les Miserables (2012), there’s an Australia. For Prisoners, he teams up with a bona fide director, Incendies‘ Denis Villeneuve, for a story that makes him push into territory beyond his usual action/romance repertoire.

My review is at Film Journal International; here’s part:

For his first Hollywood film, Denis Villeneuve’s take on Aaron Guzikowski’s famously long-unproduced screenplay about the kidnapping of two little girls is rooted in a rare workaday realism. When revelations start knocking the film this way and that, Villeneuve keeps a firm hand on the pressure valve while still giving his performers room to grow with the story rather than in spite of it. Without him, this might have been just an exceptionally twist-laden thriller. With him, it’s a dour but exceptionally high-stakes drama with several performers giving their best efforts in years…

You can see the trailer here:

New on DVD: ‘Les Miserables’

On By chrisbarsantiIn DVD - Film1 Comment

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lesmiserables-dvdEvery few years, Hollywood decides to go back and see whether it’s worth reviving the musical. Generally it’s well received, but then instead of getting back into the genre, they wait a few more years for the next one. So it was with 2012’s Les Miserables, an adaptation of a musical that trends ponderous on stage but comes alive under Tom Hooper’s deft direction. 

It’s available now on DVD and Blu-ray. My full review is at Film Racket; here’s part of it:

Some stories are so bulletproof that even a tuneless Russell Crowe can’t deliver a mortal wound. There are also some so prone to overwrought pathos that even a fearsomely committed Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, working every creative muscle in their bodies, can’t quite elevate to greatness. In Tom Hooper’s labor-of-love adaptation of the workhorse musical Les Miserables, nearly all the story’s strongest and most crowd-pleasing elements are passionately brought to the fore…

You can watch the trailer here: