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TIFF11 Day One: Beware the Ides of March

September 8, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

George Clooney,Ryan Gosling,George Clooney Director,Political Drama,Evan Rachel Wood,Oscar,Farragut North

Gosling-Clooney have Time on their hands

There’s a reason that the initial reaction to the George Clooney directed and co-written political drama has been so subdued. Clooney is so damn likeable, and charming, and affable, and amiable, that we don’t want him to feel bad. I certainly don’t. Ides of March isn’t bad. Not at all. It just isn’t Oscar-worthy. It’s flat and safe. It resembles The West Wing without the adrenaline and walk and talk. And it’s no In the Loop, and far from the political sophistication and savage wit of that movie’s blistering BBC TV predecessor The Thick of It.

No one’s bad in March: not Clooney in a key but supporting role as the Governor running for President, not Philip Seymour Hoffman as his fixer or Ryan Gosling as the idealistic staffer whose character is forged in a contested Ohio Democratic primary.

It’s just that when it comes to Oscar contenders, we’ll have to wait for that other Clooney movie, the one he didn’t direct, the one he stars in: Alexander Payne’s The Descendants. I’ll be there to see it Saturday morning — and can’t wait to fall in love again.

Filed Under: Celebrity, Criticism, Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: best actor, Best Director, best picture, Best Supporting Actor, Evan Rachel Wood, George Clooney, Jennifer Ehle, Oscar, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Toronto International Film Festival

Review: Conviction

October 16, 2010 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Us rating: ** 1/2

Hilary Swank earnestly assumes the role of real-life blue-collar heroine Betty Anne Waters, who became a Massachusetts lawyer in order to free her wrongfully imprisoned brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell). Director Tony Goldwyn does a fair job telling the story, but Conviction rises above the Lifetime-movie level due to Rockwell’s performance as a rough-around-the-edges New Englander. He demonstrates that this sinner is no saint, particularly in a scene in which he goes from devoted daddy to bar brawler in the course of one short pop song.

http://tiny.cc/khg0t

Filed Under: Criticism, Oscar Race Tagged With: Best Supporting Actor, drama, Hilary Swank, movie reviews, Oscar, Sam Rockwell, Us Weekly

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