Category: Review

Jackie Pablo Larrain (2016) [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] One of the most acclaimed films of the silent era—indeed, a film often listed among the “top ten” films of all time—is Carl Theodore Dreyer’s 1928 classic The Passion of Joan of Arc. Dreyer’s… Continue reading Jackie

Hidden Figures Theodore Melfi (2016) [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’] 1961 was that moment in history when the federal government was drawn reluctantly into the Civil Rights movement and, under president Kennedy, began to challenge state laws, particularly in the South, that institutionalized racism in direct violation of… Continue reading Hidden Figures

La La Land Damien Chazelle (2016) [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=”] Damien Chazelle, last seen directing the intense and sometimes excruciating Whiplash in 2014, is not exactly the person you would expect to create the romantic, diaphanous musical fantasy La La… Continue reading La La Land

Manchester by the Sea Kenneth Lonergan (2016) [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] Prepare to be devastated. My father, a World War II veteran, once told me that the only movie he had ever seen that made him cry was William Wyler’s acclaimed 1946… Continue reading Manchester by the Sea/Fences

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Gareth Edwards (2016) [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 legend of King Arthur is a body of literary texts that has its roots in oral tales dating back some 1500 years. Over the centuries, new characters and new tangential tales have become… Continue reading Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Miss Sloane John Madden (2016) [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’] Miss Sloane is a film about the virtually unchecked influence of lobbyists in our nation’s capitol, and the shaping of policy by money and power (when somebody mentions “public opinion” in the film, he is very quickly told… Continue reading Miss Sloane

Moana Ron Clements and John Musker (2016) [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=”] This latest Disney animated “princess” movie has dominated the box office for the past two weeks and is the darling of the critics with a whopping 97 percent rating… Continue reading Moana

Allied Robert Zemeckis (2016) [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’] It’s not Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, but it is Casablanca in 1942, and there are Nazis to be dealt with, and playing the “Marseillaise” on the piano is a turning point in the film. And in the end,… Continue reading Allied

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them David Yates (2016) [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’] Apparently ’tis the season for what Chaucer called getting “new corn from old fields”: Hollywood is so skittish about trying anything new or original that they’re banking much of the holiday season on… Continue reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Arrival Denis Villenueve (2016) [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=”] Here’s a film that critics are falling over themselves to praise. I even saw one claim that it is the best picture of the year so far. Some 93 percent of critics have given it… Continue reading Arrival