Review: Rebecca Hall's Hot Streak Continues in "Resurrection"

By Ben Miller

Featuring a dynamic lead performance from Rebecca Hall, Andrew Semans' new film Resurrection will be a little too out there for some. Those who get on the film's wavelength, though, will be greatly rewarded.

Resurrection follows an unmarried woman named Margaret (Hall) who has an enviable life: a great job, a happy home life with her daughter, and a comfortable but casual relationship with a co-worker.  But one day at a conference, Margaret notices someone who looks just like David (Tim Roth), a mysterious man from her past and she begins to unravel. It would be a shame to give any of the actual plot away, though, because of the unexpected diabolical directions the film takes. Let's just say that Margaret must confront her demons to protect her daughter from the horrors she has long suppressed...

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The Honoraries: Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction"

We're celebrating each of the upcoming Honorary Oscar winners with a few pieces on their career.

“And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

by Lynn Lee

If Jungle Fever (1991) put Samuel L. Jackson on Hollywood’s map, Pulp Fiction (1994) made him a star.  With his jheri curl helmet, glowering eyes, and stentorian voice, Jackson’s gun-toting, Bible-quoting Jules Winnfield became an instant icon.  At least, it wasn’t long before high school and college boys of the mid to late ’90s were sporting “BAD MOTHERFUCKER” wallets and reciting his “path of the righteous” speech – without, of course, anything resembling SLJ’s diction or élan.

It wasn’t just him, of course...

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Sundance: Rebecca Hall goes bugsh*t in the unhinged 'Resurrection'

by Jason Adams

Wanna know how you're in the hands of a smart filmmaker? Well there are two signs, and funny enough they both involve Rebecca Hall. The first sign is thatthey hire Rebecca Hall. That's as smart as it gets! They do that much you know you're in good hands. The second sign is they give Rebecca Hall a five minute centerpiece monologue to deliver and they hold the camera on Rebecca Hall's face the entire time without cutting. That right there is what the movies were invented for, and that's how you know that Andrew Seman's film Resurrection, fresh outta Sundance, is worth its weight in Tim Roth's discarded teeth. What? Isn't that how you measure weight? I sure do now, anyway...

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Venice Diary #04 - "Sundown" and "Last Night in Soho" disappoint, a Spanish comedy made my night

by Elisa Giudici

Penelope Cruz and cast in "Official Competition"

One of the things I like the most about the Venice Film Festival is how audience-friendly it is (aside from the maddening ticket system for this pandemic edition). It is remarkably easy and not that pricey to enjoy the most exciting movies of the competition in screenings devoted to the general audience, a lot easier and less expensive than Cannes for example. Tourists can walk by the red carpet and see major movie stars from Hollywood.

Lido (where most of the screenings take place) is a long, narrow island in front of Venice. It's a microcosm in which one might see Marco Bellocchio carrying his wife's luggage, Paolo Sorrentino eating breakfast in the cafè next to the red carpet, Luca Guadagnino riding his bike to return to Hotel Excelsior, or wind up in a queue with behind Jane Campion, who wants to see Isabelle Huppert's latest performance -- all of the above are little, precious moments I actually experienced here...

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"Rob Roy" at 25

by Eric Blume

It’s been a quarter century since the release of Rob Roy, a film directed by Michael Caton-Jones and featuring the pairing of Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange. The period drama is about the eponymous 18th Century Scotland clan chief Robert Roy MacGregor.

Evidently there was a box-office hunger for this type of film around 1995, since one month later Mel Gibson’s Braveheart opened. The latter tragically went on to win Best Picture some nine months later.  Both films feature tales of broad-stroke heroism, where the main figure is portrayed as a rebel fighting the system, full of masculine bravado and BDE (the un-fun kind)...  

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