Suncoast has such sunny appeal for a movie about death. Maybe it’s the Floridian setting, maybe it’s because this dramedy skims the surface of its morose material. A case could also be made that Laura Chinn’s filmmaking debut is supposed to mirror the disconnected feelings of the story’s lead character, Doris.
Director Thaddeus O’Sullivan guides The Miracle Club efficiently, successfully telling a period story of four women who bond over the course of a pilgrimage to the French town of Lourdes in search of their own miracles to lend guidance for their medical conditions. Although the story’s devoutness is prominent, it’s mild compared to the focus on the film’s relationships.
Sometimes, a filmmaker will come up with a unique, unprecedented concept and turn it into a one-of-a-kind feature. More often than not, however, the concept confounds the creative; leading to a muddled mess that disappoints the viewer even more than the average bad effort. Case in point: The Roads Not Taken. It’s the latest film from once-celebrated English filmmaker Sally Potter, a woman who once managed to turn the perplexing Orlando into a film, which…
On paper, Oren Moverman’s The Dinner, based on the novel by Dutch author Herman Koch, sounds similar to the 1981 chamber piece My Dinner with Andre, but with a darker twist. The intellectual wit of Andre isn’t present here, replaced instead with elements of thriller and drama.
By: Mark Barber Current representations of Sherlock Holmes are filled with weighty world-threatening stakes and explosive action sequences. Bill Condon’s more peaceful and contemplative Mr. Holmes seeks to rectify that inclination, offering a more poignant take on the famous deerstalker-wearing detective. Indeed, Sherlock’s trademark cap never appears in the film, and for good reason. Mr. Holmes is about the interplay between fact and fiction, spending much of its running time reconciling the elderly Holmes’ (Ian…
