Posts tagged David Harbour
W./E. – Movie Trailer
Jan 20th
W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined women – Wally Winthrop and Wallis Simpson – separated by more than six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate love story: King Edward’s VIII’s abdication of the British throne for the woman he loved, American divorcée Wallis Simpson. But Wally’s research, including several visits to the Sotheby’s auction of the Windsor Estate, reveals that the couple’s life together was not as perfect as she thought. Weaving back and forth in time, W.E. intertwines Wally’s journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis (Andrea Riseborough) and Edward (James D’Arcy), from the glamorous early days of their romance to the slow unraveling of their lives in the decades that followed.
“State of Play” Damn Fine Filmmaking
Apr 22nd
Damn Fine Filmmaking
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
STATE OF PLAY is a very entertaining political thriller starring Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, and Robin Wright Penn.
It was adapted from a BBC miniseries of the same name, but has been changed to take place in Washington, D.C., and to be about a reporter for an American newspaper who investigates a murder that becomes very personal for him.
The story begins with a man being shot and killed at night on the streets and an unlucky witness also being shot and sent to the hospital.
Cal McAffrey, a reporter for the WASHINGTON GLOBE, shows up at the crime scene the next day, and we see right away that he has a lot of sources and contacts in the police department.
Then a woman named Sonia Baker is killed in an accident in a subway station, and it turns out that she was the lead researcher and a member of the staff of Congressman Stephen Collins, who is the head of the committee that is investigating the outsourcing policies of the Pentagon.
McAffrey happens to know both Congressman Collins and his wife, Anne, because McAffrey and Collins were roommates in college.
Congressman Collins shows up at McCaffrey’s apartment one night, telling him that McCaffrey is the only real friend he has, and when Collins admits that he was having an affair with the dead woman, McCaffrey has to become both a friend to the congressman and a reporter for his newspaper.
Collins complains about reporters being camped out at his house now, and McCaffrey says, “Nature of the beast: public office.”
Meanwhile, McCaffrey’s newspaper has new owners who are concerned about the paper’s profitability, his editor wants McCaffrey to go with the story before McCaffrey believes it has been completed, and he has been teamed up against his will with the new blogger for the newspaper, Della Frye.
Then there is another murder, and McCaffrey suspects that a private military company that works for the Pentagon is involved.
You can think of the film and the story as “ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN with guns,” and when McCaffrey does something that Della believes is illegal, he tells her that it’s not breaking the law, but is “damn fine reporting.”
STATE OF PLAY is damn fine filmmaking, even though it does leave some unanswered questions.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
State of Play – Movie Trailer
Apr 17th
The Last King of Scotland director Kevin McDonald teams with screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan for this American adaptation of the hit British miniseries concerning the suspicious circumstances that set a rising congressman and a dogged reporter on a dangerous collision course. U.S. congressman Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is handsome, unflappable, and ascending the ladder of power with unprecedented speed. He’s the future of his political party, and as the chairman of a committee assigned to oversee defense spending, he’s got all the right connections. As the presidential race draws near, Washington insiders begin to speculate that Collins will earn his party’s nomination for the country’s top job. The prospect of Collins becoming president seems less and less likely, however, when his research assistant/mistress is viciously murdered, and some unsavory truths begin to surface. Collins was once a close friend to Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe), now a top reporter in the nation’s capital. Assigned the task of investigating Collins by his ruthless editor, Cameron (Oscar winner Helen Mirren), McAffrey recruits fellow reporter Della (Rachel McAdams) in order to track down the truth and identify the killer. But McAffrey has just walked into a cover-up of unprecedented proportions, and in a game where billions of dollars are at stake, life, love, and integrity are luxuries that simply cannot be afforded.
