Reunited for the first time since 2008’s Coen Brothers romp Burn After Reading, George and Brad are the perfect men to play these bristled rogues and turn them into winning studs to root for and follow. Between the two of them, it starts with their matinee idol mugs radiating body language. Both Supporting Actor Academy Award winners can act with their eyes better than most of their peers and contemporaries can with their entire bodies and voices.
Read MoreThe audience’s constitution will be the deciding factor on Babylon’s wide gamut of pungent engagement and raging spectacle. This juxtaposition of the carefree and zany with the dirty and dark underneath can very easily be too much. Any twinkling enchantment is met with bracing hardness. Any gleaming art is met with harsh repulsiveness. Extend this blaring back-and-forth of lift and defeat for over three hours, and Babylon can be as exhausting and unfocused as it is impressive. Good luck coming down from that high or out of that fog.
Read MoreThe most crucial dramatic trait for films about exploration is a drawing a strong reaction to the unknown from the audience. Whether it’s a historical story or a fantastical one of fiction, the film has to evoke awe, be that stirring swells of inspiration or jarring feelings of danger. It has to move you, not bore you. If a film can’t achieve that quickened pulse or heavy heart, it’s little better than a travelogue on cable television or a curriculum video they show soon-to-be-bored high school students in Social Studies class.
Read MoreI dare you to look into the painful eyes of the three ages of Chiron and their matching performers and not have your soul triple in weight. The arc in "Moonlight" from the innocence of the little boy to the uncomfortable vulnerability hiding underneath the muscles and gold fronts of the hardened resulting adult is arduously moving on multiple levels. Observing his difficulties forces you to absorb the conflict and inescapable trepidation that surrounds the shared character. Pressing his heart to your own makes for one of the most moving and rewarding film experiences this year.
Read MoreClosing out 2015, you will find the most argumentative and ballsiest movie of the year hitting wide theatrical release over the Christmas holiday. The real film in question to bear those bold superlatives is "The Big Short." Headlined by a star-studded cast and directed by one of the most unlikely of sources, this legitimate must-see film tip-toes audaciously between biting satire and topical cautionary tale. You won't know whether to be pissed or be entertained and that's a powerful quality to pull off.
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