16 December
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NIGHTMARE ALLEY Director: Guillermo del ToroStarring: Bradley Cooper, Toni Collette, David Strathairn, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, Holt McCallany Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) has made many films about monsters, the macabre, and other unexplainable forces. His new film, Nightmare Alley, takes his audience back to the traveling carnival. Bradley Cooper leads an all-star cast as Stanton Carlisle. He enters the grounds of a traveling carnival admiring the crowds, the spectacles, and the cons at hand. He befriends a psychic and her magician husband who teach him the secrets of the trade. He fallsRead More →

18 February
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NOMADLAND Writer/Director: Chloé ZhaoStarring: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May Frances McDormand could be headed for her third Oscar with Nomadland. As Fern, she finds her herself living out of her van after a slew of events left her homeless. Her husband passed away and the gypsum plant she worked at was shut down following the Great Recession. The recession killed the city of Empire, Nevada displacing many people. For Fern, it now means joining a group of van dwellers in the desert finding odd jobs here and there wherever she goes. Here’s my review And check out my interview with Chloé ZhaoRead More →

21 May
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GODZILLA Director: Gareth Edwards Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn That big scaly monster has stayed dormant for too long, and now Godzilla is back to wreak havoc upon the Pacific. Seismic activity occurs around a nuclear plant near Tokyo, Japan causing a massive explosion which leads to the collapse of the plant and the area to be quarantined due to radiation. Plant supervisor Joe Brody (Cranston) feels a responsibility toward the events and tragedies that occurred on that day. Over the next fifteen years, he becomes a paranoid conspiracy theorist who believes there is moreRead More →

20 November
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LINCOLN Director: Steven SpielbergStarring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jared Harris, David Strathairn, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson If you go into Lincoln expecting to see Steven Spielberg’s take on his assassination, you are going into the wrong movie. You will also not see a movie focused on his whole presidency making you feel like you are back in history class seeing a badly narrated movie. Even though the assassination is included, Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner focus their film on Lincoln’s (Day-Lewis) battle to pass the 13th amendment to abolish slavery. Lincoln was opposed to slavery and neededRead More →

15 October
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In Special Series

AMC Theatre’s Q&A with Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln hits theaters November 16th and this Spielberg fan will be there opening night. I started reading “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin and am hoping to finish by the film’s release date. For anyone new to Lincoln, screenwriter Tony Kushner based her screenplay on portions of Goodwin’s book. AMC Theatres hosted a live Q&A with director Steven Spielberg and star Daniel Day-Lewis after a screening of the film. They give an insightful look into the preparations of making this huge movie. Don’t worry, there are no spoilers discussed. Here’s the video:Read More →