Girls Corralled in “Mustang”
By Skip Sheffield “Mustang” is a curious name for a movie that is not about a horse or a car, but five young sisters living in the repressive Islamic culture of Turkey. The story, written by director Deniz Gamze Erugven with Alice Winocour, begins on a summer afternoon when the five sisters are let out of school with a group of friends. They go More...
Love Amidst the Holocaust
By Skip Sheffield “Closed Season” is set in Germany during World War II, but it is not about the Holocaust. It has a German couple, a young Jewish man and a Nazi officer as main characters, but it is still More...
Yes, “The Hateful Eight” Is
By Skip Sheffield You can’t accuse Quentin Tarantino of false advertising. “The Hateful Eight” is about as hateful a movie as you are likely to see this or any year. Set a few years after the War Between More...
Bring Matt Damon Home
By Skip Sheffield What is it with Earthlings and the planet Mars? Of all the planets, Mars seems to fascinate us most, and that includes filmmakers. As a matter of fact one of the earliest Edison films was “A More...
Leo DiCaprio Roughs It in “The Revenant”
By Skip Sheffield One-time pretty boy Leonardo DiCaprio is all grown up and all manned up for his role as rugged frontiersman, Hugh Glass, in “The Revenant.” There is little doubt DiCaprio will be nominated More...
A “Trumbo” for Our Times
By Skip Sheffield The black-listing of brilliant, award-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo for his political views by the House Un-American Activities Committee happened while I was still in diapers. All I knew More...
Will Smith Fires Dire Warning in “Concussion”
By Skip Sheffield Confession, I never much liked football, and it’s not because I could never make the team or even play the game. This puts me squarely on the side of Dr. Bennet Omalu, the hero of “Concussion.” More...
A Valentine to Teachers Everywhere
By Skip Sheffield “Take it, feel it, pass it on,” was the motto of Mr. Hector, a much-loved teacher at a boy’s private school in northern England, 1986. Mr. Hector, played by Colin McPhillamy, is the central More...
Short on Inspiration? Try “My All American”
By Skip Sheffield Every so often we get an inspirational sports movie. For this year we have “My All American,” based on the book “Courage Beyond the Game: The Freddie Steinmark Story.” Freddie Steinmark More...
“Spectre” Ups James Bond’s Ante as He Visits the Past
By Skip Sheffield Bigger explosions. Crazier stunts. Faster chases. Gorier fights in more exotic locations. And of course those sexy Bond girls. “Spectre” follows a time-tested formula and ups the ante. This More...
