I am not of fan of movies that resort to breaking the fourth wall, as it were, and letting their key characters talk incessantly to the audience. It is a device that generally feels lazy, a writer’s crutch to explain away story points instead of letting us discover for ourselves. The recent annoying pandemic comedy Together, with James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan as a bickering couple who sell their sides of ongoing marital arguments directly to the camera, is an example of why overuse of this technique can be so tired. Now along comes The Good House, which just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and where Sigourney Weaver as a functioning alcoholic real estate agent in North Boston offers her view on the town and its people with full sarcasm intact. It is based on the 2013 book by Ann Leary, and it seems this very literary conceit was...
- 9/16/2021
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Tom Berenger, Kristen Hager, Paul Ben-Victor, Jimmy LeBlanc, Mark Sivertsen, Brian Duffy, Ace Gibson, Ryan Homchick, Caroline Portu, Erica McDermott | Written and Directed by John Barr
Retired war veteran Jim Reed (Berenger) heads out on a hunting trip in the Allagash backcountry of Maine but when an accident finds him face-to-face with the corpse of a dead woman and a duffle bag packed with stolen money he soon finds himself in a web of deceit and murder. Fighting both extreme cold and a gang of bloodthirsty bank robbers, Reed must put all of his military training into action in an ice-cold game of cat-and-mouse.
The debut feature for cinematographer John Barr, Blood and Money is clearly modelled after the films of the Coen Brothers but without any of the style or panache of that duos film – Barr seemingly thinking the noir-ish characters and snowy setting are what mark out the Coen’s work.
Retired war veteran Jim Reed (Berenger) heads out on a hunting trip in the Allagash backcountry of Maine but when an accident finds him face-to-face with the corpse of a dead woman and a duffle bag packed with stolen money he soon finds himself in a web of deceit and murder. Fighting both extreme cold and a gang of bloodthirsty bank robbers, Reed must put all of his military training into action in an ice-cold game of cat-and-mouse.
The debut feature for cinematographer John Barr, Blood and Money is clearly modelled after the films of the Coen Brothers but without any of the style or panache of that duos film – Barr seemingly thinking the noir-ish characters and snowy setting are what mark out the Coen’s work.
- 11/10/2020
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
From its generic title to an ending you can see coming from outer space, Blood and Money follows a path rutted with enough clichés to cover the three million acres of Maine forest land where the film is set. Writer-director John Barr lucked out in getting Tom Berenger, a consummate pro and Platoon Oscar nominee, to play Jim Reed, a Vietnam-era marine and experienced deer hunter. He’s determined to “bag a buck” on this trip to a New England area so remote and lacking in paved roads that manned...
- 5/14/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
An elegy for old-school reportage and the people who pursue it, and a journalistic procedural with a snappy rush of urgent discovery and consequence. I’m “biast” (pro): partial to stories about journalists, love the cast
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
For me, this kind of story is why we do this.” So says Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, the editor of the Boston Globe newspaper on the eve of the publication, in January 2002, of a story the team of investigative journalists in the paper’s Spotlight department had been working on for months. It would crack open the coverup of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church in Boston, led to the revelations of similar coverups around the U.S. and across the planet, and would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. But “this kind of story...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
For me, this kind of story is why we do this.” So says Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, the editor of the Boston Globe newspaper on the eve of the publication, in January 2002, of a story the team of investigative journalists in the paper’s Spotlight department had been working on for months. It would crack open the coverup of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church in Boston, led to the revelations of similar coverups around the U.S. and across the planet, and would go on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. But “this kind of story...
- 1/6/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Spotlight director Tom McCarthy, star Brian d'Arcy James, screenwriter Josh Singer Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Tom McCarthy's astutely paced newsroom thriller stars Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Brian d'Arcy James as The Boston Globe Spotlight team, with Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Billy Crudup, Stanley Tucci, Len Cariou, Neal Huff, Jamey Sheridan, Michael Cyril Creighton and Jimmy LeBlanc. Spotlight is edited rigorously by longtime collaborator Tom McArdle (The Station Agent, The Visitor and Win Win), while Josh Singer wrote the script. Wendy Chuck, Alexander Payne's costume designer for Nebraska, The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt and Election, was added to the mix.
Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron: "You have someone with an objective eye ..."
McCarthy told me of the role producers Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust played, what motivated Marty Baron, and dressing for Spotlight at the dinner organised by Peggy Siegal.
The opening scene of Spotlight sets the tone.
Tom McCarthy's astutely paced newsroom thriller stars Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and Brian d'Arcy James as The Boston Globe Spotlight team, with Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Billy Crudup, Stanley Tucci, Len Cariou, Neal Huff, Jamey Sheridan, Michael Cyril Creighton and Jimmy LeBlanc. Spotlight is edited rigorously by longtime collaborator Tom McArdle (The Station Agent, The Visitor and Win Win), while Josh Singer wrote the script. Wendy Chuck, Alexander Payne's costume designer for Nebraska, The Descendants, Sideways, About Schmidt and Election, was added to the mix.
Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron: "You have someone with an objective eye ..."
McCarthy told me of the role producers Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust played, what motivated Marty Baron, and dressing for Spotlight at the dinner organised by Peggy Siegal.
The opening scene of Spotlight sets the tone.
- 12/30/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Spotlight screenwriter Josh Singer at Circo Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Tom McCarthy's Spotlight has Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James and Liev Schreiber team together to investigate allegations of child abuse committed by Catholic priests. Billy Crudup, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Len Cariou, Neal Huff, Jamey Sheridan, Michael Cyril Creighton and Jimmy LeBlanc round out the terrific ensemble, with the voice of Richard Jenkins as Richard Sipe.
Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams
At the Spotlight dinner hosted by Bobby Cannavale, Laura Linney, Kelli O’Hara and Christian Borle with Candice Bergen attending, screenwriter Josh Singer praised his producers Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust, costume designer Wendy Chuck and production designer Stephen H. Carter. Unlike the team behind Alan J. Pakula's All The President's Men, which had Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's book as a primary source, the Spotlight team had to do the research themselves.
Tom McCarthy's Spotlight has Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James and Liev Schreiber team together to investigate allegations of child abuse committed by Catholic priests. Billy Crudup, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Len Cariou, Neal Huff, Jamey Sheridan, Michael Cyril Creighton and Jimmy LeBlanc round out the terrific ensemble, with the voice of Richard Jenkins as Richard Sipe.
Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams
At the Spotlight dinner hosted by Bobby Cannavale, Laura Linney, Kelli O’Hara and Christian Borle with Candice Bergen attending, screenwriter Josh Singer praised his producers Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust, costume designer Wendy Chuck and production designer Stephen H. Carter. Unlike the team behind Alan J. Pakula's All The President's Men, which had Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's book as a primary source, the Spotlight team had to do the research themselves.
- 12/15/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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