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NYAD: AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE 

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
2783

Like many or most of you, I’ve watched Annette Bening and Jodie Foster give fine performances for years and years, but I got so wrapped up in NYAD –and their exceptional work—that I allowed myself to believe that they really were the women they were playing. That’s called suspension of disbelief, and it made viewing the movie a truly emotional experience for me. Directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi are documentary filmmakers (Free Solo, Return to Space) and mountain climbers, a felicitous choice to bring Julia Cox’s screenplay to life. They are also married, which gives them an understanding of relationships. There’s no substitute for life experience, and while Diana Nyad’s story is unlike theirs in many of its particulars, they clearly connected to…

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CHARLIE CHAPLIN VS. AMERICA: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman

Books Leonard Maltin
3332

CHARLIE CHAPLIN VS. AMERICA: When Art, Sex and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman (Simon & Schuster) At first glance this new book by premier film historian and biographer Eyman would seem to limit its coverage to the period of the 1940s—when Chaplin was burdened by a bogus paternity suit and accused of being a Communist—until his death on Christmas Day, 1977. But Eyman incorporates eye-opening details about Chaplin’s entire life and career throughout the narrative, making this one of the finest surveys of the man and the artist ever written. Like the author, I first fell in love with Chaplin as a boy after seeing him in Robert Youngson’s comedy compilations. I saved up to buy 8mm prints of his Mutual short subjects from Blackhawk…

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THE HOLDOVERS: THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE TO DATE

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
8498

It’s a shame that Alexander Payne isn’t more prolific; six years have passed since his last film appeared on theater screens, the underappreciated Downsizing. All the more reason to cheer for and welcome The Holdovers, the most satisfying film I’ve seen all year. Inspired by an obscure Marcel Pagnol picture Merlusse, Payne enlisted David Hemingson to expand its premise, update it and change the setting. He immediately pictured his Sideways star Paul Giamatti in the leading role and it’s impossible to envision anyone else in the part. At first I wasn’t sure if I could bear spending time with the misanthropic teacher of Ancient Civilizations, let alone his snarkiest student, whom he is forced to babysit over winter break at the New England prep school where he has spent his entire life. It’s…

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KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
7179

The day after watching this important new film I read a fascinating interview with Martin Scorsese in The New Yorker. In it, he revealed that his original plan of faithfully adapting David Grann’s novel went aground after a first reading of the lengthy screenplay. Instead, he chose to emphasize the core relationship between two of its leading characters, skillfully played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone. Indeed, their love story anchors the film. And, stimulated by the Osage people who surrounded him on location in Oklahoma, Scorsese incorporated details of wardrobe, behavior, speech, and customs that caught his eye into his picture.  Those details matter. Killers of the Flower Moon is a masterful example of intimate storytelling on a giant canvas. Di Caprio has never been better, and…

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SHE CAME TO ME

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
4410

As a fan of such films as Personal Velocity and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, I looked forward to the latest work by writer-director Rebecca Miller. But I can only describe She Came to Me as odd. A heavy-handed farce, it is acted to perfection by Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei but they can’t forge this collection of peculiarities into a cohesive whole. Dinklage plays a very dour though respected composer of operas. His stylish wife (Hathaway) is a therapist with more than a touch of OCD. Faced with writer’s block, Dinklage takes his dog for a walk in Manhattan and winds up in a bar where a sexy woman finds him amenable to her rather brazen come-on. Imagine her surprise (and ours) when their sexual encounter…

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MIRANDA’S VICTIM: AN IMPORTANT STORY

In Theaters Leonard Maltin Movie Reviews
10371

The term “Miranda Rights” will be familiar to anyone who watches police procedurals on TV. This film follows the sexual assault case that led to American citizens being read their “Miranda rights” when being arrested. The woman who bravely pressed charges against her assailant under the condition that her name never be revealed broke her silence after sixty years—and this film is the result. (Ironically, her stealth led to the bill being named after her assailant instead of her!) The setting is a small town in 1963. Abigail Breslin gives a moving performance as an unworldly 18-year-old girl who is raped, at a time when the word itself was barely uttered in polite company, let alone in a courtroom. In a tight-knit community, admitting to…

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THE FILM BOOKS THAT MATTERED TO ME

Books Leonard Maltin
3934

Last week Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter published the results of a survey to determine the 100 greatest film books of all time. I was delighted to find that I made it to the list at #19 for Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide. My family and I pored over the list together, pleased that so many fine books written by friends and colleagues were also on the roster. When we were finished my daughter Jessie asked if all of the books I grew up loving had been included—which got me thinking.  The following made a lasting impression on me when I was just a kid, on the way to becoming a lifelong movie addict. The first book I read, on loan from my local public library, was Mack Sennett’s…

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