Easy guide to production
Film critic Kimberly Gadette, born and raised in movie-centric L.A., believes celluloid may very well be a part of her DNA. Having received her BA and MFA from UCLA's School of Theater, Film & Television, she spent many of her formative years as an actress (film, tv, commercials, stage) before she literally changed perspective, finding a whole new POV from the other side of the camera. You can find her last 450+ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com/critic/kimberly-gadette/). Other than taking the occasional side trip to Cannes or Sundance, you can find her at the movies ... sitting in the dark as usual.
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Iron Man 3 brings us a new twist on the buddy film. Here, Robert Downey Jr. teams up with his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang writer/director Shane Black ... and the combo gives us quite the bang bang for the buck. With Black's irreverent style and Downey's breezy wit, this … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) In the 1939 L. Frank Baum-based film, a young girl named Dorothy Gale flees from her Kansan environs in order to rescue another. In the 2013 Baum-based film, a young man named Oscar "Oz" Diggs flees from his Kansan environs in order to rescue himself. And that, in … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Poor Toto... his fate is still as much up in the air as a bunch of flying monkeys. You'd think that between The Wizard of Oz's five directors and twenty screenwriters (credited and not), some bright bulb on the MGM set might have noticed that the movie's inciting … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Consider Kathryn Bigelow's epic Zero Dark Thirty as simultaneously cut-to-the-bone lean and monumentally vast. Not quite fiction, not quite documentary, the term "docudrama" is apt. But don't expect a fast-paced historic reenactment akin to All the President's … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Unlike so many of 2012's films that took a slow, tortured walk to get to some dramatic kernel (e.g., Cosmopolis, The Magic of Belle Isle and People Like Us), let's jump right into the fray: The Best: The U.S. box office, reporting $10.84 billion, versus the … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Derogatory dismissals of prosaic visual experiences have been around since, well, someone was bored to tears. We've heard such poetic hyperbole as watching paint dry. Or grass grow. In Walter Salles' On the Road, we can now add to that lexicon by suggesting that … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) A couple holds each other tight, shuffling and swaying together as they effect an inelegant dance. Though the scene merely depicts an old man helping his elderly wife walk the few steps over to her wheelchair, their halting pas de deux carries with it a … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Like Rebecca Hall's inane giggle, Lay the Favorite comes across as high-pitched and annoyingly animated without good reason. Strike that. Without any reason. If an audience could be located who'd been living on the other side of the moon, who'd never seen any … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) In 2008, the American economy is so bad that even hit men have to take a hit ... financially, that is. Perhaps they'd better cut down on target practice at the shooting range because, after all, bullets don't grow on trees. Blaring the theme of a faltering … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Do not let the synopsis of Rust and Bone deter you. This is not some horrific Jaws-ian depiction of a woman being ripped apart by a vicious aquatic killer. Filmmaker Jacques Audiard employs such exquisite visual taste, that the film is washed clean of any graphic … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) The good: Lincoln is an important film. The not-so-good: Lincoln is an "important" film. Based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's lauded 2005 biography, "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," this movie's subtitle could very well be: "How I Got … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Similar to having to endure a forced visit to a family gathering, littered with a clutch of unpleasant relatives, it's always a relief when crazy Cousin Wackjob shows up. No matter how awkward the occasion, she'll always make it worse. Which, in turn, cranks the … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Let's face it: The Twilight Saga has proved itself to be a franchise unlike any other. Consisting of five films from 2008 to 2012, this vampire/wolf/girl love triangle has achieved a level of mediocrity so stunning as to defy credulity. No other series has … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) It's Kate and Charlie, the funniest, sweetest couple of regulars kicking back at the local music club. But a few hours later: It's Kate and Charlie, the screwed-up drunks who can barely walk under their own power. In the late afternoon: Look, how cool they are, … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Sugar Rush is one of the four locales inside the arcade world of Wreck-It Ralph. But after the younger audience views a few minutes of this cake 'n' cookie carbo creation, the happy sappy energy that surges through children, a sugar rush if you will, is likely to … [Read more...]
By Kimberly Gadette (doddleNEWS) Denzel Washington rescues Flight twice. As the pilot Whip Whitaker, he pulls off enough flight-sleight of hand to keep his 50-ton commuter plane from spiraling straight down to earth, saving 96 of the 102 lives on board. As the actor, he takes a heavy-handed … [Read more...]
