Movies about the mentally ill tend to render them in cute, charming strokes — with only the occasional blast of ugly to remind us, “Oh yeah, this gorgeous, lovelorn soul is still crazy.”
And “Silver Linings Playbook” has a hint of that. You cast Bradley Cooper as a mentally ill man who probably got out of the psychiatric ward a bit too early, and Jennifer Lawrence as a young cop’s widow who isn’t really coping with that fact, and the Hollywood ending is written all over it.
It’s been five years since Kristen Stewart was plucked from supporting player/indie-film obscurity and thrust into the spotlight as the female face of the “Twilight” franchise. Five years and five films will have passed, as Stewart grew from someone the New York Times labeled “a sylph with a watchful, sometimes wary gaze” into the 22-year-old named by Forbes as “the highest-paid actress in Hollywood” — earning some $34.5 million, according to estimates.
IT’S ADVENTURE TIME.
The Emmy-nominated series featured on Cartoon Network is returning for a fifth season after its shocking cliffhanger season finale, which aired Oct. 22.
But why would college students enjoy this supposed kids show?
The answer lies within the show’s context.
You find yourself in a dark forest, with only a flashlight and a cheap camera to chronicle your experience. You begin walking through the forest, the only noise being the gravelly sounds of your footsteps as you venture deeper and deeper into darkness.
Approaching a makeshift tunnel, you notice something that shouldn’t be there. A white piece of scratch paper taped to the inside wall. Picking it up you can see what it says with help from the flashlight.
“DON’T LOOK… OR IT TAKES YOU.”
A decade after George Lucas said “Star Wars” was finished on the big screen, a new trilogy is destined for theaters as The Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday that it was buying Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion.
The seventh movie, with a working title of “Episode 7,” is set for release in 2015. Episodes 8 and 9 will follow. The new trilogy will carry the story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia beyond “Return of the Jedi,” the third film released and the sixth in the saga. After that, Disney plans a new “Star Wars” movie every two or three years. Lucas will serve as creative consultant in the new movies.
It’s funny how the beloved movies of one’s less politically correct youth turn out to have a lot more edge to them once you show them to your own kids. “Back to the Future” has more sexuality than you remember, and little blasts of profanity. “Adventures in Babysitting,” “Bad News Bears” and “Goonies,” even more.
“The Walking Dead.” “American Horror Story.” “True Blood.”
TV dares to scare us every day now. Who needs Halloween?
As an avid horror movie fan, I was eager for the release of the newest “Paranormal Activity.”
“Paranormal Activity 4” is the latest film in the “Activity” series, and many had hyped it up to be a good one.
I excitedly waited several months in hopes of leaving Waco’s Starplex Cinema startled at every shadow and wary to hang out with any people named Toby.
“The Walking Dead.” “American Horror Story.” “True Blood.”
TV dares to scare us every day now. Who needs Halloween?
Layne Lynch, the only returning Uproar Artist from the 2011-2012 school year, is determined to hit the ground running this year.
“I was really shocked and also just really grateful,” Lynch said. “I felt really cool and really honored. I want to do this with my life, so I was really excited to be certain that I could use this year to focus to the best of my abilities on music.”
Lynch is unsure of what exactly would classify her genre.
Everybody knows the three certainties of life — death, taxes and speed traps.
But it has become apparent that a fourth certainty must be added to that list.
I am speaking, of course, of the certainty of more “Taken” movies in our future.
While voice acting may be a niche form of acting in the real world, it thrives on the internet with such websites as the Voice Acting Alliance and the Voice Acting Club.
On the Voice Acting Alliance website, users can become a member of an interactive community where not everyone has to be talented with their voice. There are writers, actors, producers and musicians with a common goal to have fun while doing what they love. When you become a member, you can choose to audition for original audio or visual productions, or projects that are associated with a pre-existing medium of art, often called fan productions.
It’s been a long time coming, Charlie Brown.
Yeah, you read that correctly. The Peanuts gang is coming back to the big screen in November 2015.
In war-torn Sierra Leone, a young girl’s rape goes unnoticed. Rape is normal and socially acceptable, so when the horrifying experience is brought to authorities, the investigation never takes them from their desks. The young girl is merely another number.
Women’s rights are a universal issue of debate, although in some countries such as Somaliland, in which one in 14 women will die in childbirth because they lack the proper health care, the matter is more serious.
The best female-driven comedy movie to hit theaters since “Bridesmaids” has now arrived.
After a heavy social marketing regime, “Pitch Perfect” hit theaters a week early in some cities, living up to its expectation as one of the funniest films of the fall.
Beca, played by Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), is a rebellious aspiring DJ forced into college by her English teacher father, whose job offers her free tuition.
After a month of solitude and interning at the student radio station, her father confronts her about finding a job and making friends by the end of the year, and if she can’t, he’ll help her move out to L.A. to live her DJ-ing dreams.
Frankenweenie,” Tim Burton’s new stop-motion animated feature for Walt Disney Pictures which comes out Friday, opens with a young boy, Victor, watching a homemade movie. The star happens to be his dog, Sparky, who rescues miniature townsfolk from a Godzilla-like monster, a foreshadowing of things to come.
Tonight’s Baylor Symphony Orchestra concert will be unconventional, to say the least.
Members of the Seinan Gakuin University Chamber Orchestra, from Fukuoka, Japan, will play alongside the Baylor Symphony Orchestra.
The concert commemorates the 40th anniversary of the sister relationship between the two schools.
Sometimes the little guys still get their big day.
The Waco-made film “Sironia” will be screened from Friday to Oct. 4 at the Hollywood Jewel Theater on Woodway Drive.
“End of Watch” is like the “Paranormal Activity” of cop movies. It aims to bring the viewer into the heat of the action through the shaky shots and handheld cameras.
“End of Watch” uses the novelty successfully, creating a sense of urgency and bringing the actor’s point of view to light.
In 2009, it looked as if we might be on the cusp of a golden age of science fiction in TV and film. “Battlestar Galactica” was wrapping up its award-winning, five-year run and the big-screen Star Trek reboot proved to be a surprisingly enjoyable return to form.
It would seem that Sonny has been found.
There’s still buzz at Baylor about the Texas Independent Film Network’s premiere of “Searching for Sonny” on Sept. 6.
Quite some time has passed since I’ve seen a movie as beautiful as “The Words.” I admit that the real reason I went to go see it is because of my undying love for Bradley Cooper. I would have been content with just scenes of him shirtless and brooding, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the plot had actual substance to it.
Texas’ independent film industry is getting a boost from the Texas Independent Film Network, which devotes its services to promoting Texas made films, bringing them to small towns, college campuses and museums for exhibition.
I had never heard of “Lawless” until a few days before I saw it.
It didn’t seem like a movie I would jump at the chance to go and see, but those sneaky Hollywood producers managed to credit an all-star cast that deemed this movie as a “must-see.” Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, Shia Labeouf, Dane Dehaan Pane, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce and Jessica Chastain star in this film.
The horror film “The Possession” is set to claim the No. 1 spot over the Labor Day weekend, though the most frightening thing at the box office may be poor overall ticket sales.
I have a terrible habit of falling asleep during movies, in particular, action movies. It’s a terrible affliction, considering the fact that I’m a film major with a mean case of attention deficit disorder.
Warning: This is a story about online cat videos. If you’re among the seemingly tiny minority of the general population not interested in watching a one-minute clip of a cat in a T-shirt pounding on a keyboard, then move along.
For everyone else, a new measure of respectability is looming for an Internet pleasure that is both massively popular and, for some people, a bit embarrassing. The Walker Art Center, a well-regarded museum of modern art in Minneapolis, is presenting its first “Internet Cat Video Film Festival” to showcase the best in filmed feline hijinks.
ABC has acquired the television rights to Spike Lee’s upcoming Michael Jackson documentary, the network announced Tuesday.
The acclaimed filmmaker, who had previously collaborated with Jackson, has been prepping “Bad 25,” a documentary tracing the late king of pop’s creative vision during the making of “Bad,” the follow-up to his groundbreaking “Thriller.” It is one of two major projects pegged to the 25th anniversary of the 1987 hit-filled album.
China is rolling up the red carpet for Hollywood.
Just six months after Chinese and American leaders reached a new agreement allowing more foreign movies into the world’s most populous nation, officials there are trying to torpedo the box office returns of some of Hollywood’s biggest summer films.
What has Michael Moore and digital technology wrought?
Now anyone with a political agenda and low-cost digital camera can make a movie and call it a documentary. Even enterprises that at best are vanity projects and at worst badly disguised and overly long attack ads are taken seriously by audiences— and box-office observers.
