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Last year's Roman J. Israel, Esq. , starring legendary screen actor Denzel Washington , was one of 2017's significant cinematic disappointments. Considering director  Dan Gilroy 's impressive directorial debut Nightcrawler  (starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed ), Roman was more than just textbook "sophomore slump" material, it was a perplexing exercise that kept viewers asking themselves, "What am I watching?" and "What were the filmmakers thinking?" Roman told the story (I guess) of an idealistic lawyer (Washington) who gets in over his head once he takes over a hostile criminal case from his late mentor and boss...but already I'm making the film sound much more interesting and exciting than it really is. Colin Farrell co-stars as a hot shot attorney and marginal friend to our protagonist but he's underused in the role. As I reflected on the dud that this movie is, not the mention how it unbelievably scored Washington a Best...

Jonathan Demme , the marvelous director of films like Philadelphia , Rachel Getting Married , Something Wild and The Silence of the Lambs, passed away this past Wednesday April 26, 2017. An enduring quality of his films was his ability to skillfully break the fourth wall with his subjective camera (and frequent collaborator and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto) in such a way that felt natural and non-distracting. It was also effective in tapping into the emotions and psyches of the viewers; in the pop culture, for example, most moviegoers can only picture Hannibal Lecter intensely staring through the screen, as if his eyes were set to literally come out of the canvas. Essentially, there is a sense of urgency to these artistic choices that Demme has made with these point-of-view shots. They give his films an extra layer of life and vitality. Most importantly, these shots help create an all-around empathy for the players on screen. When we see them, they see us. There's magic ...