There are regular references to the case of Patty Hearst throughout Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl; Hearst being a young woman who was kidnapped from her California home in 1974 by a left-wing revolutionary group and who later joined their cause, leading some to claim that she had been brainwashed.
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Director Leslye Headland, whose last effort Bachelorette played out like a highly cynical version of Bridesmaids, is back with her own 21st Century version of When Harry Met Sally. Sleeping With Other People bears a lot of similarities to Rob Reiner’s late 80s classic romcom, and it’s not a bad thing.
Read More2015 has been a heck of a year and while you may agree or disagree with the ranking of our list, hopefully you will not disagree with the inclusion of any of these varied works of cinema that make up Close-Up’s 10 favorites’ of 2015.
Read MoreOpening with a scene that recalls Spielberg’s sea set masterpiece Jaws. Is probably not a good idea. That Great White Beast of a film is impossible to match and Ron Howard could really have done without it lurking under the waters of his choppy sea-faring yarn In the Heart of the Sea.
Read MoreFor all intents and purposes, Daddy’s Home feels like another of those dusted off scripts from the 1980’s that have recently populated the CV of Kevin Hart, and used to be tossed around by agents of Twins-era Arnold Schwarzenegger or Daddy Day Care-era Eddie Murphy.
Read MoreThere comes a point when you can have too much of a good thing, and for the first hour of this overlong re-teaming of comedy queens, Tina 30 Rock Fey and Amy Parks and Recreation Poehler, the kind of over indulgent, unedited Saturday Night Live hit-n-miss sketch format script that so often bloats contemporary American comedy, threatens to suffocate this union of talent.
Read MoreAdam Sandler has long been the star of easy-watching comedies, while not particularly challenging or high-brow, which make for reliably funny throwaway entertainment.
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Some films come with hype, some come with trepidation, and those rare few come with a mixture of the two. Star Wars started back in 1977 when George Lucas unexpectedly (to both he and the cast and crew) helmed what would become the first film of a juggernaut franchise. Star Wars changed the way movies are sold and how they can create a culture.
Read MoreStraddling the line between childlike wonderment whilst retaining an earthy more adult sensibility is a hard act to pull off, even more so in animation where one wrong step can land you in whimsy or grotesquerie.
Read MoreIt is hard to imagine a premise as interesting as The Last of Robin Hood: one of the biggest action movie stars in Hollywood known for his brash, adventurous behavior on screen and his insatiable taste for alcohol, drugs and sex in the backstage, getting involved with an under-age girl and getting her mother involved under the promise of stardom.
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