Tom Hooper’s extravaganza – big-screen telling of the beloved musical “Les Miserables” – is as relentlessly driven as the ruthless Inspector Javert himself. It simply will not let up until you’ve Felt Something – powerfully and repeatedly – until you’ve touched the grime and smelled the squalor and cried a few tears of your own.
It is enormous and sprawling and not the slightest bit subtle.
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Is there anything Ang Lee can’t do?
Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln.
The task of encapsulating the essence of Abraham Lincoln in a single film took Steven Spielberg roughly three times as long as it took the 16th president to win the Civil War, abolish slavery and put the country on the course to recovery.
Despite some glaring anachronistic flaws, outstanding performances by scene-stealer Ezra Miller and a nuanced Emma Watson make Stephen Chbosky’s film adaptation of his book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” worth watching.
Brad Pitt in
Seven years into their relationship, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are getting ready to seal the deal by getting married at Chateau Miraval, their $52-million palazzo by the French Riviera. The impending nuptials serve as ultimate confirmation of Pitt’s lifelong dream of being father to a big family – even if shuttling six children between homes in London, L.A., New York, and southern France can at times resemble a covert military operation. Pitt, however, has no qualms about logistics. He lives for his kids.
As he always did during the course of their on again/off again relationship, Richard Burton (Grant Bowler) wrote letters to his great love Elizabeth Taylor (Lindsay Lohan). He even composed one on the last day of his life in 1984.
With films such as Ira Sachs’ “Keep the Lights On” and David France’s “How To Survive a Plague” drawing solid audiences, 2012 has turned out to be another banner year for LGBT films. The year ends on an especially high note with “Any Day Now,” starring out actor Alan Cumming as Rudy, a gay West Hollywood man who must deal with a prejudicial and antiquated court system as he attempts to adopt a boy with Down syndrome in 1979.
The comedy “Pitch Perfect” is ideally suited for anyone who was disappointed by “Glee: The 3D Concert Movie” and longs for more a cappella. Based on the book by gay writer Mickey Rapkin, “Pitch Perfect” follows Beca (Anna Kendrick, who’s an excellent singer) and Jesse (Skylar Astin), both freshmen at Barden University. Beca wants to be a record producer, but her Barden professor father (out actor John Benjamin Hickey) wants her to get a college education first. Jesse, on the other hand, is determined to follow his dreams and join one of the campus a cappella groups.
The blockbuster hit “Skyfall” is actor Daniel Craig’s third – and critics say his best – turn as Agent 007. Just two weeks into its release, the latest installment in the James Bond franchise had already amassed nearly $700 million in box office receipts and was still going strong.
As he always did during the course of their on again/off again relationship, Richard Burton (Grant Bowler) wrote letters to his great love Elizabeth Taylor (Lindsay Lohan). He even composed one on the last day of his life in 1984.
Maybe if you’re 20 years old and high in your dorm room with your friends, the platitudes presented in “Cloud Atlas” might seem profound.
Gay documentary filmmaker Macky Alston, director of “Questioning Faith: Confessions of a Seminarian,” returns to the religious arena for his latest film. The Sundance Award-winner “Love Free or Die” is an intimate and emotional portrait of Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Anglican bishop in the history of Christendom.
