Writer/director David Lowery‘s adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight casts Dev Patel in the role of King Arthur’s (Sean Harris) nephew and youngest knight Gawain who sees a chance to prove himself when a Green Knight (Ralph Ineson) arrives in Camelot for a game. He offers any knight the opportunity to lay a blow on him that he will return in kind one year later.
The adaptation takes some liberties with the source material, making Gawain a bit more of a coward and whoremonger than in the original chivalric poem. After the Green Knight survives Gawain beheading him, and takes his leave, the story flashes forward a full year, meaning we don’t see the looming threat play on the knight over time.
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Adapted largely from Gloria Steinem‘s autobiography My Life on the Road, the latest from director Julie Taymor offers a look at the life and travels of Steinem through the performances of four different actresses. Following the film’s initial look at Gloria’s unorthodox childhood, where she is played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong and Lulu Wilson, Alicia Vikander then carries the role for the next hour exploring Gloria’s travels and development both as a writer and activist before handing over the role to Julianne Moore for the film’s final hour.
The structure of the film does allow the actresses to appear on-screen together at times as Gloria talks over decisions and regrets with both older and young versions of herself. This isn’t the only unusual technique Traymor uses of the course of the film, but it is by far the most effective. Otherwise, The Glorias plays much like a standard biopic, albeit with several scenes shown out of order.
Given the times, especially following the recent death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the film, and it’s subject matter, is certainly timely.
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Lara Croft is back. After the pair of financially successful (if pretty dumb) films starring Angelina Jolie in the early 2000s, the most famous video game archaeologist (sorry Mr. Jones) returns to the big screen. Because origin stories are all the rage, the latest Tomb Raider (following in the footsteps of the character’s more recent comic adventures) takes Lara back to the beginning to showcase how she became the world’s best tomb raider.
Alicia Vikander is a solid choice for a younger version of the character showcasing skills she hasn’t yet completely mastered. More grounded, with less emphasis on staging sequences for the sole reason to make her look cool, it’s certainly a more dramatic role that Jolie was given. The storyline, while taking a bit long to get going, is also better than either of the previous two movies as this time around Lara goes all Oliver Queen on a lost island where evil mercenaries hope to uncover a dangerous tomb. As an action film based on a video game Tomb Raider is surprisingly successful, even if, at times, certain sequences feel based more on questionable video-game logic than solid writing.
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We now have our first trailer for the new Tomb Raider reboot starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Dominic West, and Killjoys‘ Hannah John-Kamen also star. Tomb Raider opens in theaters on June 18th.
First Look – Tomb Raider (2018) Read More »
