Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Week of Nov. 28 - Dec. 4 (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

At Tropic Cinema the Drama of People Triumphs Over Time and Space

By Shirrel Rhoades

If you recently saw "Interstellar," you’ll be tempted to go buy a ticket to "The Theory of Everything" just to better understand the science behind the outer-space epic about Black Holes. But you’d be wrong. While the new film at the Tropic is certainly about theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, it doesn’t deal with Quantum Mechanics or Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Instead, it focuses on Hawking’s love life before he got confined to a motorized wheelchair.
 
In "The Theory of Everything," Eddie Redmayne plays Hawking and Felicity Jones his first wife Jane in this love story set against a growing physical disability (Lou Gehrig's Disease). St. Louis Post-Dispatch calls it "a brainy bio that exerts a gravitational pull on the heartstrings." And Miami Herald says it "keeps you focused on the soul of a man trapped inside a malfunctioning body."

"Birdman" brilliantly casts Michael Keaton (former star of those "Batman" movies) as a fading actor who starred as a superhero known as "Birdman." To resuscitate his fading career, he seeks to put on a Broadway play. Boston Globe calls the film "a jaw-dropping stylistic wow that spins, pirouettes, turns inside out, and miraculously stays aloft for two hours." And Detroit News says it "challenges, surprises and dazzles while still working at the edges of a frazzled mind."

"Whiplash" pits a young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) against an overbearing music teacher (J.K. Simmons), a clash of artistic development in this high-voltage drama. Your Movies says "the final confrontation between gifted student and tyrannical teacher comes quickly, then ends on an equally sudden if just about perfect note." And ReelViews describes it as "brutal and horrific yet compelling."

"St. Vincent" finds the good in a grumpy old man (Bill Murray) who does a horrid job of babysitting the kid next door. Three Movie Buffs calls it "A showcase for Bill Murray." And SceneStealers.com concludes, "If there were a grumpy old man who lived next door to every latch-key kid in America, we'd have a lot more well-adjusted children in the world."

Space and time? Go have a good time at the movies.

srhoades@aol.com
 



































































 

 

 

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