Category: Review

Justice League Zack Snyder (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] Here’s the thing: it’s probably not really fair to do so, but with DC’s Justice League coming so closely on the heels of Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok, it’s virtually impossible not to make a direct… Continue reading Justice League

Murder on the Orient Express Kenneth Branagh (2017) [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=”] Kenneth Branagh’s new film is a throwback in a lot of ways, being a remake of a 1974 film that was based on a 1934 novel that has no superheroes, no… Continue reading Murder on the Orient Express

Thor: Ragnarok Taiki Waititi (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-hover’] If you hire Taiki Waititi, New Zealand’s reigning master of quirky comedy (who brought you What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople), to direct your new superhero movie, you shouldn’t be surprised when Thor:… Continue reading Thor: Ragnarok

Thank You For Your Service Jason Hall (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-hover’] Jason Hall, first-time director of the new film Thank You For Your Service, is perhaps best known for his script for the film American Sniper, a movie that followed the career of Navy S.E.A.L. sniper… Continue reading Thank You For Your Service

Marshall Reginald Hudlin (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-hover’] Since Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner showed us, in the successful and acclaimed Lincoln in 2012, that a biopic does not have to be an unwieldy womb-to-tomb conglomeration of scenes in something like, for example, Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic The… Continue reading Marshall

Professor Marston and the Wonder Women Angela Robinson (2017) [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=”] Turns out the real-life origin story of Wonder Woman is just as interesting as the fictional one. But it’s definitely R rated, so you might be less inclined to bring… Continue reading Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

Battle of the Sexes Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (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-hover’] What I remember about the much-hyped tennis match between the remarkable Billie Jean King, then the top women’s player in the world, and the 55-year-old former men’s Wimbledon champ Bobby Riggs, was that… Continue reading Battle of the Sexes

American Made Doug Liman (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-hover’] In real life, Barry Seal was a drug smuggler turned DEA informant and, ultimately, a CIA tool (on one assignment) involved in the Reagan White House’s obsession with ridding Nicaragua of the communist Sandinistas by any means necessary.… Continue reading American Made

Stronger David Gordon Green (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-hover’] Well, you won’t find this movie in Conway, and you’ll have to look pretty closely to find it anywhere in central Arkansas, I suppose because movie houses around here were committed for reasons known only to them to… Continue reading Stronger

mother! Darren Aronofsky (2017) [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=”] Many people—I would venture to say most people—will not like Darren Aronofsky’s new film mother! When you take a look at the movie site RottenTomatoes.com and note that 68 percent of the critics have given… Continue reading mother!