Picoreview: Into the Woods: Not bad. Not *nearly* as bad as it could have been, which sounds damning with faint praise and isn’t intended to. It may even verge on satisfying, although it’s not entirely satisfying, because I’m too familiar with the stage play. Many of the performances are very, very good. Most, even. Chris Pine is terrific as Cinderella’s Prince, Shatnering it up way more than he does in Star Trek, and, as everybody has said, the Princes’ Agony is very funny indeed. Meryl Streep is–well, she’s Meryl Streep.…
Category: Movies
Picoreview: Birdman
Picoreview: Birdman: So, wow. That was, so that was a movie. I’m. Wow. Virtuoso performances from the whole cast. Emma Stone eats the screen alive when she’s on screen, and Edward Norton–it’s always fun to watch actors playing actors, but he’s especially good (I shall detail why behind the spoiler cut). Coming from the theatre background that I do, it was a…it was…it rang true in the same way Noises Off does, except without the farce. Mostly. It was…wow. And technically, also, wow. The scene changes, the camera shots, the…wow.…
Picoreview: Big Hero Six
Picoreview: Big Hero Six: well that was wonderful. I cried about four times because I’m a big sap, so if you’re at all sappy, bring tissues. And whether you’re sappy or not, stay through the credits, because the post-credit sting was a zinger. “I love San Fransokyo,” I said to Ted. “Well, you like San Francisco,” he said in a perfectly reasonable tone. Which is true. I do. But San Fransokyo was even cooler. THE WIND FARMS!!! It is perhaps slightly unfortunate (in retrospect; I didn’t notice it while watching)…
Picoreview: Annie
Picoreview: Annie: Not as good as I hoped it would be; possibly not even quite as good as I thought it would be from the lukewarm reviews. I wanted this film to knock it out of the park. Instead it hit maybe a double, and that’s pretty nearly literally as far as I can take a baseball analogy so I’ll stop now. O.O :) It was reasonably cute, with a too-long running time. There were some amusing antics and a handful of lines that made me laugh aloud. It’s not…
Picoreview: The Imitation Game
Picoreview: The Imitation Game: Pretty good. Not as good as the hype, but pretty good. Better than Interstellar and its hype, for sure. It’s Cumberbatch doing what–not what he necessarily does best, I said, thinking of him in August, Osage County–but certainly what he’s best known for: playing an exceedingly intelligent, not particularly well socialized man with grandiose vision and the ability to carry it out. The difference, of course, is this time it’s a relatively true story. I don’t know a *great* deal about Alan Turing, so I don’t…