Usually, when we think of holiday movies, we picture feel-good family comedies filled with light-hearted shenanigans and bittersweet life lessons. Okay, and the occasional violent slasher. While we love plenty of those movies, they’re often missing crucial elements of the holidays we experience in real life: sordid disagreements, petty bickering, and, in the words of the great Frank Costanza, the airing of grievances. Well, there’s at least one-holiday dramedy that accurately depicts how the most wonderful time of the year can bring out the worst in us: Ted Demme’s 1994 film The Ref, which tells the story of a cynical cat burglar who makes the biggest mistake of his life when he takes the wrong couple as hostages. Because these two would wear down even the most composed of criminals. It’s a snarky, acid-tongued little gem of a movie, although not necessarily one you’d want to watch with grandma and grandpa.
- 12/20/2023
- by Eric Walkuski
- JoBlo.com
Chicago – The movie musical seems to revive every year, and writer/director Richard Lagravenese puts his spin on the genre with a modern touch. A couple, portrayed by Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick, goes through the ups and downs of a relationship while belting out appropriate tunes in “The Last Five Years.”
The film is based on the stage play by Jason Robert Brown, and is the type of musical that is entirely sung. The songs are sad (“Still Hurting”), hilarious (“Summer in Ohio”) and poignant (“If I Didn’t Believe in You”) and are rendered by the couple in a direct and modern approach through Lagravenese’s direction.
Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick in ‘The Last Five Years’
Photo credit: Radius-twc
Richard Lagravenese is an influential screenwriter of the past 25 years, who has worked with some of the most notable directors of his generation, including Terry Gilliam (“The Fisher King...
The film is based on the stage play by Jason Robert Brown, and is the type of musical that is entirely sung. The songs are sad (“Still Hurting”), hilarious (“Summer in Ohio”) and poignant (“If I Didn’t Believe in You”) and are rendered by the couple in a direct and modern approach through Lagravenese’s direction.
Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick in ‘The Last Five Years’
Photo credit: Radius-twc
Richard Lagravenese is an influential screenwriter of the past 25 years, who has worked with some of the most notable directors of his generation, including Terry Gilliam (“The Fisher King...
- 2/19/2015
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
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