Biopic

Saturday Night

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Saturday Night
  • IMDb: link

Director Jason Reitman, who co-wrote the script with Gil Kenan, offers a witty, fast-paced, love letter to the rocky beginnings of a modern comedic touchtone by going behind the scenes in the hours just before the first live performance of Saturday Night Live. With two hours until air, we follow Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) around the chaotic setting of Studio 8H at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The film plays up tensions at NBC at the time between the network and Johnny Carson which allowed for the show’s creation even if, as the film suggests, no one at NBC expected Saturday Night to ever make it to air.

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A Complete Unknown

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: A Complete Unknown
  • IMDb: link

“You’re kind of an asshole, Bob.”

There’s a scene between Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) and Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) after their first night together that sums up the themes of the movie succinctly. Returning to music over her, while also offering an offhand dismissal of her work, Bob still brings her back to his bed through his songwriting. In a nutshell, just as Ms. Baez so eloquently puts it, Bob is indeed an asshole. However, he’s one hell of a talented asshole.

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Maria

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Maria
  • IMDb: link

Maria explores the final days of renown opera singer Maria Callas (Angelina Jolie) looking back on her life in a self-medicated haze that blurs fantasy and reality in her quest to rediscover the voice she lost years ago. The standouts here are Jolie’s performance, for which she trained 7 months to learn to sing opera (a mix of both Jolie and Callas’ voices are used throughout the film), and the film’s amazing look courtesy of cinematographer Edward Lachman, set decoration by Sandro Piccarozzi, and costumes by Massimo Cantini Parrini.

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Widow Clicquot

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Widow Clicquot
  • IMDb: link

Widow Clicquot

Widow Clicquot follows the struggles of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot (Haley Bennett) taking up the reigns of her husband’s (Tom Sturridge) vineyard after his death with few allies (Sam Riley and Ben Miles), a vineyard in debt from failed harvests hemorrhaging money, life under the temperamental rule of Napoleon Bonaparte, and fighting both and the elements and a world uncustomed to a woman running a business. While attempting to honor her husband by producing wine he would be proud of, the film also intercuts moments of their marriage highlighting his temperamental nature which led to his death.

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Young Woman and the Sea

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Young Woman and the Sea
  • IMDb: link

Young Woman and the Sea

Based on the true story of the first woman to swim the English Channel, Daisy Ridley stars as Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle. After filling in a little of her early life (including surviving the Measles as a child to the utters surprise of everyone), the film moves forward with the young Trudy’s (Olive Abercrombie) fascination with swimming following her sister Meg (Lilly Aspell and Tilda Cobham-Hervey) into lessons and eventual competitions proving herself the best female swimmer England had to offer. This will lead to the Olympics and eventually the English Channel as new challenges to overcome.

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