Author: Jeff Mitchell

Celebrate Gary Oldman’s birthday with a double feature

Jeff Mitchell

Happy Birthday, Gary Oldman!  The consummate and immensely talented British actor celebrates his 60th birthday on March 21.   While Oldman certainly starred in understated supporting roles in colossal movie franchises like “Harry Potter” and Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, he can electrify the screen with edgy, highly kinetic performances, when the character calls for it, beginning with his turn as Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious in “Sid & Nancy” (1986).  Known for diving into diverse roles, Oldman – of course – won the Best Actor Oscar for Sid Vicious’s complete…

Difficult not to love ‘Loveless’, a stunning and equally bleak film

Jeff Mitchell

“Loveless” – One of the more common statistics floating “out there” – spoken at happy hours, bake sales and around water coolers – is that half of marriages end in divorce.  The collective “they” might be right, because according to Google, the U.S. divorce rate is 41 and 60 percent for first and second marriages, respectively. Looking at divorce globally, an Oct. 18, 2017 article in The Telegraph, a UK newspaper, states that Maldives has the highest such rate in the world.  The United States?  We rank fifth. Well, Russia…

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ offers many positives, but not enough space for its story

Jeff Mitchell

“A Wrinkle in Time” – Madeleine L’Engle wrote the science fiction, young adult novel “A Wrinkle in Time” back in 1962, but this critic was not familiar with the source material at all when walking into a Tempe, Arizona movie theatre to see director Ava DuVernay’s film adaptation in 2018.   The movie poster looks engaging though, as a blonde-haired Oprah Winfrey, a red-headed Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling sport appealing, celestial looks, and with the promise of time wrinkling in the film title, some out-of-world concepts are sure to appear…