Emma Thompson – Spinning Platters

Film Review: A Walk in the Woods

Go take a hike: Redford, Nolte lead us on pleasant enough Walk

Bill (Robert Redford, left) and Stephen (Nick Nolte) wonder what they’ve gotten themselves into.

A Walk in the Woods, based on Bill Bryson’s popular 1998 memoir of attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail, is inevitably going to be compared to Wild, last year’s film of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, on the opposite side of the country. Aside from similar plots, though, the two films have little in common; Wild is the better picture by far, but A Walk in the Woods holds its own as a sort of lightweight, droll counterpart. What Wild did for solo women hikers on the PCT, A Walk in the Woods might do for the grandfather set on the AT.

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Film Review: Men, Women & Children

Life is grim, and so is this film

Men-Women-and-Children — Adam Sandler’s Don looks for some extramarital fun in Men, Women & Children.

Jason Reitman disappointed many of his fans with his hackneyed, sugary film Labor Day last fall. Unfortunately, one year later, he still has not returned to top form. His latest effort is a heavy-handed mess of a film called Men, Women & Children, the title of which more aptly describes everyone who should avoid it.

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Film Review: Saving Mr. Banks

Mrs. Travers goes to Los Angeles: It’s Mickey vs. Mary in well crafted, absorbing film

P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) is decidedly unamused by Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) and Disneyland.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical going into Saving Mr. Banks, the new film from Disney Pictures and director John Lee Hancock, the writer and director of 2011’s feel-good The Blind Side. I was afraid this film might be too treacly and sentimental, and be nothing more than a glorification of Walt Disney and the Disney canon, in much the same way The Internship glorified Google. But my fears were allayed when I found myself utterly engrossed and thoroughly entertained by Hancock’s picture, which features a compelling narrative, complex characters, and excellent performances. Continue reading “Film Review: Saving Mr. Banks”

Spinning Platters Interview: Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert on Beautiful Creatures [VIDEO]

Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert in BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

On paper, Beautiful Creatures may look like just another film adaptation of a bestselling YA series about a supernatural romance. Alden Ehrenreich stars as Ethan, a restless high schooler in podunk Gatlin, South Carolina, who yearns to break free from the oppressive small-mindedness and cultural atrophy of his hometown. Ethan is charming enough to seem like a standard-issue popular guy, but in private his tastes lean toward the cerebral (he is a voracious reader of banned books) and he dreams of the day he’ll leave Gatlin for good. Ethan’s thirst for something different is what attracts him to new girl Lena (Alice Englert), the quiet and witchy-looking descendent of one of Gatlin’s most notorious families. Lena is immediately targeted as a dangerous freak by the town’s many gossipy Bible-thumpers, and while Ethan rushes to defend her from their attacks, it turns out that Lena does present a very real threat: she comes from a family of Casters (read: Southern witches), and on her rapidly-approaching 16th birthday, she will be “claimed” for either good or evil – with potentially catastrophic consequences.

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