Tag: Tomas Alfredson

Film Review: The Snowman

This Snowman will leave you cold       

Detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) searches for a killer, and we search for a good movie. Which of us will be successful?

Whenever a movie is based on a book, there are always those who will passionately argue that “the book was better.” Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong, but, in the case of The Snowman, which opens today, I firmly believe the-book-is-better-crowd is correct, and I haven’t even read the book upon which the film is based. But, I have seen the movie, and, after watching it, I cannot possibly fathom that anything could be worse than this nonsensical, hastily thrown together, boring mess.
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Spinning Platters Interview: Gary Oldman on “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”

Gary Oldman stars as "George Smiley" in Focus Features' release of Tomas Alfredson's TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. Credit: Jack English

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when it seemed like maybe we’d already seen the best of Gary Oldman. After establishing himself as a fearlessly intense and committed film actor with Alex Cox’s seminal British indie, Sid and Nancy (1986), he spent the next decade delivering unforgettable performances in roles ranging from Lee Harvey Oswald to Dracula to Beethoven, pivoting nimbly from blockbusters like Air Force One and The Fifth Element to cult favorites like The Professional and Romeo is Bleeding. But after the disastrous Lost in Space (1998), he seemed to vanish into an infrequent series of TV appearances and little-seen films.

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