Category: Movies at Home

Celebrate Sally Hawkins’ birthday with ‘Maudie’

Jeff Mitchell

Happy Birthday, Sally Hawkins!  Yes, Ms. Hawkins turns 45 years young on April 27, and this talented thespian has several notable performances on her resume.  Sally’s breakout turn in Mike Leigh’s “Happy-Go-Lucky” (2008) placed her on the cinematic map, and she garnered Oscar nominations for ‘Blue Jasmine’ (2013) and ‘The Shape of Water’ (2017) too. Although The Academy fawned over work in Guillermo del Toro’s “Shape”, we think that she delivered an even better performance that year as real-life Canadian artist Maud Lewis in ‘Maudie’.   Here is our review.  …

Celebrate Al Pacino’s birthday with this triple feature

Jeff Mitchell

On April 25, acting legend Alfredo James “Al” Pacino turns 81 years young, and with dozens of films and nine Oscar nominations (and one win for “Scent of a Woman” (1992)) on his resume, this Manhattan native has plenty of fabulous and celebrated movies to watch on his birthday.  My personal favorite Pacino performance is his masterful turn as Carlito Brigante – a career criminal trying to go straight – in Brian De Palma’s “Carlito’s Way” (1993), but let’s look at three other films.  This cinematic trio might not reside…

Movie of the Week: ‘The Apostle’

Jeff Mitchell

With the Oscars arriving in April (Sunday, April 25), we’re looking back at films and performances that the Academy missed. “The Apostle” (1997) – Robert Duvall, with over 140 acting credits, sometimes gets behind the camera, and in 1997, he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in “The Apostle”.  He plays a Pentecostal preacher, Euliss F. “Sonny” Dewey, a passionate, but also flawed man.  He drinks and womanizes, and after a dubious public incident, he’s on the run.  It’s one of 1997’s best films, probably just behind “L.A. Confidential”.  It wasn’t…