celebrities
Top celebrities in the geek entertainment and comic convention business. Our favorite geek advocates.
The Legacy of Robbie Coltrane
Dearly departed great actor Robbie Coltrane died at age 72. The sad actor died it's unclear if he was sick or not. I will deeply saddened by this because I loved Rubeus Hagrid. He was the most gentle giant, the best casting in the Harry Potter series was when they casted Robbie Coltrane.
By Emily Curry (Rising Phoenix)3 years ago in Geeks
Film review: At Eternity’s Gate
There may never have been a painter as sure of his artistic vision, yet as emotionally needy, psychologically troubled and socially isolated as Vincent van Gogh. Willem Dafoe’s magnificent performance captures every bit of the artist’s complexity in Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate. With stunning visuals and a judicious balance of poetry and drama, Schnabel draws us into both Van Gogh’s genius and his tortured life.
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
White Noise is 'thrillingly original'
t seems like no time at all since Adam Driver was playing the embodiment of cocky youth in Noah Baumbach's While We're Young (2014). But one of the great things about Baumbach's films is that as he gets older, his angst-ridden characters get older, too: with each new project he shines a light on the worries of another age bracket. In his brutal 2019 divorce drama, Marriage Story, Driver played a director who wasn't a hip young flavour-of-the-month any more. And now, in Baumbach's latest brilliant comedy, which opened the Venice Film Festival, Driver is middle-age incarnate: a university professor with thinning hair, a thickening waistband, and a looming awareness that he might be closer to death than birth. The role suits him so beautifully that awards nominations should be heading his way.
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
Film review: Mary Poppins Returns
How do you make a sequel to one of the most beloved live-action children’s films ever? For several decades, the answer was: you don’t. Mary Poppins was released in 1964, but even though the source novel’s author PL Travers wrote seven further books about the Banks family’s magical nanny, no one attempted to follow a film that was, to use Mary’s own phrase, practically perfect in every way.
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
'Is Anybody There' with Michael Caine Jerks Tears Across Intergenerational Relationships and Into the Afterlife
This past Sunday director John Crowley, Sir Michael Caine and his 14 year old co-star Bill Milner appeared at Jacob Burns Film Center with a screening of their new independent film, Is Anybody There? Wanting to do something seen through the eyes of a child, Mr. Crowley knew he had his idea when discussing the intergenerational upbringing friend and screenwriter Peter Harness.
By Rich Monetti3 years ago in Geeks
Five stars for ‘important and humane film’ Girl
Lara, the 15-year-old heroine of Girl, has just enrolled in a prestigious ballet school, an environment where everything that’s challenging about being a teenager becomes 10 times more difficult: the awareness that your body is developing in ways you might not like; the sense that there is an in-crowd that you can’t quite penetrate; the fear that you aren’t good enough, however hard you try; the irritation with well-meaning family members who don’t understand you. What magnifies these insecurities further is that Lara is a transitioning transgender girl, counting the days until she can have gender reassignment surgery, so she is even more self-conscious about her physique than her classmates are.
By Cindy Dory3 years ago in Geeks
Don't Worry Darling - A Movie Review
Something about this world doesn’t feel weird to you? Don’t Worry Darling is a 2022 film. A housewife is living happily with her husband in a 1950s Utopian setting. Experiencing strange occurrences, Alice learns that this community may not be the peaceful living quarters as it turns out.
By Marielle Sabbag3 years ago in Geeks
Mrs Harris Goes to Paris: The fairy-tale myth that endures
In Paul Gallico's 1958 novel Flowers for Mrs Harris, there is a couture dress called Temptation. It is black velvet: the long skirt covered in jet beads, the b odice a pale froth of chiffon, tulle and lace. It is number 89 in a show held within the hallowed halls of the House of Dior. Among the usual attendees – "ladies and honourables from England… baronesses from Germany, principessas from Italy, new-rich wives of French industrialists, veteran-rich wives of South American millionaires, buyers from New York" – there sits a London cleaner, enthralled by every emerging look. It is Temptation, though, that steals her heart. "She was lost, dazzled, blinded, overwhelmed by the beauty of the creation. This was IT!!"
By Sue Torres3 years ago in Geeks
Lois Weber: the trailblazing director who shocked the world
A nude scene! Abortion; birth control; prostitution! In the silent-movie era, Lois Weber’s films were shockingly ahead of their time – and also immensely popular. She wrote, directed, produced and sometimes starred in her films, and in 1916 was the highest paid studio director in the US, man or woman. She pioneered techniques including split screen and double exposure, for a time ran her own studio, and along with Alice Guy-Blaché was one of the two women who contributed the most to cinema at its start. But she died alone, broke and nearly forgotten in 1939. What happened?
By Cindy Dory3 years ago in Geeks
Venice Film Festival review: The Truth
Hirokazu Kore-Eda has been writing and directing supremely humane, insightful dramas for 20 years, to greater and greater acclaim: last year’s Shoplifters won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar. Now, he’s made his first film outside of Japan, The Truth (or La Verité), which opens this year’s Venice Film Festival. Not much has been lost in translation. It’s certainly lighter and breezier than usual: more likely to make you laugh, but less likely to make you cry. In his Japanese work, the characters tend to be one wrong move away from destitution and/or death, whereas in his new laidback farce they don’t seem to risk anything worse than a hangover brought on by too much expensive brandy. But Kore-Eda’s understanding of the complexities of familial love and the disappointments of middle age is as wise as ever.
By Alessandro Algardi3 years ago in Geeks
