John Cusack broke out young in phenomenally successful John Hughes projects and has managed to sustain a successful career since, more than 30 years. He’s learned a lot of lessons about Hollywood. And that’s why he lives in Chicago. We spoke with Cusack during the Toronto International Film Festival about early fame and movie
A friendly discussion of life and death passes the time as the Allies storm the last Nazi defenses of the City of Lights. After watching Volker Schlöndorff’s (Oscar-winning German director of “The Tin Drum”) touching, scary and occasionally funny rendition of an imaginary meeting that decided the fate of Paris you may never watch “My
Spirits in restrooms, blood from the walls and a hand cranked camera add up to something, but we are not sure what. Film archivist David (Rupert Evans) smells a rat. Maybe it is that his wife Alice (Hannah Hoekstra) seems distracted by her business associate Alex (Carl Shaaban) and seems to be pulling away from
Enter the real life world of spy craft and believe the truth is stranger than fiction Almost a year and a half after filmmaker Laura Poitras’ and journalist Glenn Greenwald first met with whistleblower Edward Snowden his name has become a household word. Snowden contacted Poitras and asked her to be a part of that
Down and dirty revenge flick with a cast of guns that rivals the actors Directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski team up with screenwriter Derek Kolstad to produce a roller coaster of mayhem starring Keanu Reeves as semi-retired hit man John Wick. Trying to do the right thing, Wick is traumatized into bloody action when
The Guest is an unusual film because it hits so many notes and defies the single genre stereotype. It’s scary, exhilarating, darkly comic and LOL-worthy. It stars Dan Stevens –Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey – transformed into David, a psychopathic serial killer from Kentucky who tracks down the family of a recently deceased army buddy.
Home movies juxtaposed with horrific Nazi footage paints the picture of the sleeping monster in us all. Vanessa Lapa’s (co-written with Ori Weisbrod) riveting documentary reveling the life of SS-leader Heinrich Himmler is, if nothing else, a remarkable collection of archival footage. Although some (most?) of this footage has been seen before, it is edited
Lacking in originality and nearly devoid of sunlight, this elegant psychological study is nine parts caution for every one part closure. Directed and written by Mathieu Amalric (co-written by leading lady Stéphanie Cléau), “The Blue Room” is superficially a cautionary tale about marital infidelity and, on a deeper level, a psychological study in promises made,
The lavish war epic comes back to life is this swashbuckling tale of treachery and charisma. Venezuelan actor Édgar Ramírez stars in Alberto Arvelo’s lavish production of the life, victories and eventual end of the revolutionary hero Simón Bolívar. Reminiscent of the stereotypical Roman and Viking war flicks, Arvelo skillfully ups the ante with high
A scary and stirring reporting of the reality of life on the Mexican / US border. Rodrigo Reyes simmering treatise on the human condition in the worst of all worlds starts from the beginning. Children laugh and play, full of good intentions and dreams of the future. But something happens to them when they grow.