Category: Review

I, Tonya Craig Gillespie (2017) [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=”] Just in time for the winter Olympics, Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) revisits the big story of the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer: the worldwide scandal featuring American figure skaters… Continue reading I, Tonya

Hostiles Scott Cooper (2017) [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-hov Hostiles, the new western directed and co-written by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Black Mass), begins with a stark quotation from D.H. Lawrence: “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer.” While this does seem to sum… Continue reading Hostiles

The Shape of Water Guillermo del Toro (2017) [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=”] With 13 Academy Award nominations, announced yesterday, The Shape of Water leads all other films of 2017. Released on December 22, Guillermo del Toro’s romantic horror-fantasy has had… Continue reading The Shape of Water

The Post Steven Spielberg (2017) [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=”] When first-time screenwriter Liz Hannah wrote the original screenplay for The Post in 2016, it was in response to her reading of Katherine “Kay” Graham’s memoir Personal History. Hannah, inspired by… Continue reading The Post

All the Money in the World Ridley Scott (2017) [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=”] It may be inevitable that Ridley Scott’s new film, All the Money in the World, concerning the notorious 1973 kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III, grandson… Continue reading All the Money in the World

The Greatest Showman Michael Gracey (2017) [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] Hugh Jackman has played Marvel’s Wolverine so often that it’s hard to remember he’s at heart a song-and-dance man, but a quick look back at his impressive work in Les Miserables is sufficient… Continue reading The Greatest Showman

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Rian Johnson (2017) [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=”] Just in case you’ve been living in a cave for the past several months, let me inform you that the eighth installment in the Star Wars franchise, subtitled… Continue reading Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Lady Bird Greta Gerwig (2017) [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=”] I can’t say I was dying to see this movie, which as far as I could tell was just another teen angst movie about a high school senior coming of age.… Continue reading Lady Bird

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh (2017) [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] Some movies are hard to pigeonhole. Pretty much all of Martin McDonagh’s work falls into this category. The toast of the London and New York stages while still in his… Continue reading Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Wonder Stephen Chbosky (2017) [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-hov It’s getting into that holiday season when Hollywood feeds the craving for sugary sweet fare by feeding us often mindless sentimental claptrap that melts like cotton candy at the first substantial thought cast in it direction. And you have… Continue reading Wonder