Movie Review: 'Wonderstruck' left me wonderstruck

Julianne Moore portrays older Rose in "Wonderstruck". Roadside Attractions

Wonderstruck (2017, directed by Todd Haynes. U.S.A., English, Color/B&W, 117 minutes) The misconception about children being the main focus of a film can be that it will be written off as a kids film. Well, that's not always true (e.g. "It"). Todd Haynes' "Wonderstruck" has two kids as the protagonists in a film that is a little more deep than what could be considered kid-friendly. Haynes brings as much love and compassion to his young lead actors as he did in the forbidden love story of his last feature, "Carol", without dumbing down the characters to draw in the "Despicable Me" audience.

Movie Reviews: Great Actresses Highlight Sublime 'Maps to the Stars' and 'Deux Jours, Une Nuit'

At this year's Cannes Film Festival there were two actresses who generated a lot of buzz to win the best actress prize: Julianne Moore as a self-destructing actress in "Maps to the Stars" and Marion Cotillard as a woman trying to get her job back in "Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night)". Moore walked away with the prize, but who's to say one performance was truly better than the other?

These are two different roles in two vastly different movies and the end result are two great films with strong empowered women driving them to greatness.

Maps to the Stars (2014, directed by David Cronenberg. U.S.A./Canada, English, Color, 112 minutes) No one can make a film more unpredictable and fluid than Cronenberg, and "Maps to the Stars" proves it. In this ensemble piece we follow the dark side of the Hollywood system. Julianne Moore is the driving force here as the washed-up, Lindsay Lohan-esque character Havana Segrand, who's trying to revamp her career. In her aura is her psychologist (John Cusack), his teenage movie star (Evan Bird), a limo driver (Robert Pattinson) and a recent L.A. transplant named Agatha (Mia Wasikowska) with mysterious motives.

All of the stars align in this unpredictable and totally engaging piece about the Hollywood machine, thanks in great part to Bruce Wagner's script and Julianne Moore's tip-top performance. Never have I seen Moore act like such a Hollywood wreck, and I enjoyed it so much. From an actress who has played so many dramatic characters, here she does a 180 as a partying, completely unstable product of overindulgence and a lack of  talent... like Lindsay Lohan. Equal parts haunting, funny and sad, "Maps to the Stars" balances a lot of characters and storylines flawlessly and with delicate care to each. You may not like some of the characters, but who in Hollywood is ever likable? At least this tries to explain it.

Rating: A

 

Studio Releases New District 13 Citizens Posters for 'Mockingjay- Part 1'

With just over three months to go until the eagerly-anticipated "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1", Lionsgate has released six character posters of its District 13 inhabitants.

Leaders of the once uninhabitable District 13, President Coin, Beetee, Effie, Finnick, Haymithc and Plutarch, are all characterized against a bland concrete wall on the poster's far right side. District 13 was thought to be destroyed after the first rebellion in Suzanne Collins'  best-selling novels, best was revealed in the second book, "Catching Fire", that it will be used as a base to plan a second rebellion.

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay- Part 1" will be released nationwide on November 21.

Cannes Jury Awards 'Winter Sleep' Top Prize

Nuri Bilge Ceylan sits at the edge of the stage holding his Palme d'Or for 'Winter Sleep'

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At over three hours long, and one of 18 films in competition, "Winter Sleep" might have been the longest film to show at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, but the jury didn't get a winter's nap watching it, showering the film with the coveted Palme d'Or.

The jury, headed by New Zealand writer/director Jane Campion and including Sofia Coppola, Gael Garcia Bernal and Willem Dafoe, awarded Turkish auteur, and Cannes staple, Nuri Bilge Ceylan with his first Palme during the closing ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière Saturday night.

The 55-year-old director dedicated his Palme to those who have lost their lives in Turkey over the past year due to political conflict. "Winter Sleep" received rave reviews from its only official screening at the festival.