This year’s Tribeca Film Festival featured a number of against-type performances, from Richard Gere as a loner desperate to connect with anyone he can in Franny to Jessica Biel as a an unglamorous yoga instructor in Bleeding Hearts, to name just a few. But perhaps the most unexpected turn came from Arnold Schwarzenegger as a despairing father in Maggie.
Ex Machina follows Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a cog in the wheel at a tech company, who is invited by his reclusive boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac) to visit his estate and meet Ava (Alicia Vikander), the android he’s created. His plan is for Caleb to determine whether Ava is self-aware. Needless to say, the plan does not go off without a hitch and as a sense of isolation and claustrophobia set in, the film takes us to a place that is engrossing yet very uncomfortable.
Veep is back and sharper than ever. TV’s smartest comedy enters its forth season this week and now that Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has become the leader of the free world, viewers can expect a new level hijinks and catastrophes.
Countless films are set during the Victorian Era, and with good reason. The style of dress and grand decor are ripe for cinematic use while its rigid structure typically offers a poignant exploration of oppression. Set in 1847, Effie Gray tells the true story of the title character’s doomed marriage to art critic John Ruskin (Greg Wise). The film’s muted tones and foggy backdrop convey the young woman’s inner turmoil while the binding costumes illustrate her limited options.
While there's no shortage of memorable turns on Empire (who can stop retweeting memes of Cookie's best lines?), Grace Gealey's reserved portrayal of Anika definitely stands out.
Last year, director Jaume Collet-Serra brought us the high octane guilty pleasure flick, Non-Stop, and while that was set entirely on a plane (for the most part), his latest film, Run All Night, spans across New York City.
