Category: Review

The Front Runner Jason Reitman (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] You pretty much have to be my age (and that’s one helluva lot older than today’s average moviegoer) to remember Gary Hart’s aborted campaign for the 1988 Democratic nomination for president, a campaign… Continue reading The Front Runner

Green Book Peter Farrelly (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] The new film Green Book opened this past weekend to generally very positive reviews and very positive audience reactions, and this after the film won the Audience Favorite Award at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year. It’s… Continue reading Green Book

Can You Ever Forgive Me? Marielle Heller (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Shakespeare-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’76’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Ruud Rating 4 Shakespeares [/av_image] Melissa McCarthy is, of course, well-known for her comic talents, and she was brilliant in her premiere screen role in 2011’s Bridesmaids. She has gone on to create other memorable… Continue reading Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Bohemian Rhapsody Bryan Singer (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Queen’s epic six-minute “Bohemian Rhapsody” first topped the UK singles charts for nine weeks in 1975, but most Americans these days, if they remember the song fondly, remember it from the classic scene in Mike Myers’ film Wayne’s… Continue reading Bohemian Rhapsody

The Old Man and the Gun David Lowery (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SusannTennyson.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Imagine for a moment that Butch and Sundance survived that deadly shootout in Bolivia in 1908, and went to prison instead. Then imagine that Sundance escapes from prison 73 years… Continue reading The Old Man and the Gun

Bad Times at the El Royale Drew Goddard (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] You can be excused if, a few minutes into Bad Times at the El Royale, you start having flashbacks and think you’ve wandered into a 1960s version of The Hateful Eight as you see… Continue reading Bad Times at the El Royale

First Man Damien Chazelle (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Tennyson-180×180.jpg’ attachment=’77’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] So the last time that director Damien Chazelle and lead actor Ryan Gosling got together they gave us La La Land, an interesting and imaginative new take on the Hollywood musical that was entertaining though hardly deserving of… Continue reading First Man

A Star Is Born Bradley Cooper (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Why, I ask myself, has this well-worn story of an up-and-coming star married to a crashing-and-burning one been so popular (for more than eighty years) that Hollywood has turned… Continue reading A Star Is Born

The Wife Björn Runge (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/3-12.jpg’ attachment=313′ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’] Three Tennysons/Half Shakespeare[/av_image] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”] Swedish director Björn Runge’s current film The Wife was adapted from a novel of the same name by Meg Wolitzer, but as you watch the movie you’ll be surprised it wasn’t adapted… Continue reading The Wife

White Boy Rick Yann Demange (2018) [av_image src=’http://jayruud.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Susanns.jpg’ attachment=’78’ attachment_size=’square’ align=’left’ animation=’left-to-right’ link=” target=” styling=” caption=’yes’ font_size=10” appearance=’on-hover’] 2 JACQUELINE SUSANNS [/av_image] Rick Wershe, Jr., the protagonist of the new film White Boy Rick, was a Detroit drug dealer and FBI informant who as a minor (aged 17) was sent to prison on a life… Continue reading White Boy Rick