FilmFlashes.com Blog

David Hare’s screenplay (based on Bernhard Schlink’s book) shifts audiences from a young German boy’s (David Kross) sexual initiation with an older woman (Kate Winslet) to his encounter with her a decade later at a war crimes trial where she appears as one of the defendants. Brilliant performances are directed by Stephen Daldry and [...]

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Audiences are challenged  to consider what level of certainty is morally acceptable before accusations are made  and lives are twisted by the turmoil.   Writer, John Patrick Shanley directs strong performances by Meryl  Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams  and Viola Davis, set in a Bronx Catholic school in the mid 1960’s.

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Frank Langella (as former President, Richard M. Nixon) and Michael Sheen (as British TV personality, David Frost) capture the essence of their respective characters in Peter Morgan’s dramatization of the 1977 televised debates between the two men. 

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Korean War vet, Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a man who has his own way of dealing with increased crime and ethnic diversity in his deteriorating Detroit neighborhood. Eastwood’s direction is flawless as he takes you through the emotionally charged events that revolve around Walt’s relationship with his Hmong neighbors (Bee [...]

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Harvey Shine, an under-appreciated jingle writer (Dustin Hoffman) arrives in London for his daughter’s wedding, only to learn that his role as “father of the bride” has been usurped by his ex-wife’s (Kathy Baker) new husband (James Brolin). A chance meeting with an unlucky-at-love Brit (Emma Thompson) rekindles a spark in Harvey, [...]

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Liev Schreiber and Daniel Craig are a dynamic duo, playing the oldest Bielski brothers, Zus and Tuvia , who despite their philosophical differences worked together to save close to 1200 Jews from extermination by providing save harbor in the forest outside of Poland. Director, co-writer Edward Zwick presents power packed realism, interspersed [...]

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Screenwriters, Eric Roth and Robin Swicord bring to life this magical adaptation from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story about a man who ages backwards. Director, David Fincher guides the cast, including Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, through Benjamin Button’s (Brad Pitt) lifetime of [...]

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While it helps to have a taste for Jim Carrey’s facial twitches and physical humor, there is a wider audience appeal to this comedy that explores the joys and pitfalls of extreme affirmation. While Carrey is the main attraction, Terence Stamp puts in a memorable appearance as the mastermind of the “Power of [...]

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