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A good idea sabotaged by inconsistent filmmaking: “DON’T WORRY DARLING” | FILM REVIEW

Starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles and Chris Pine
Directed by Olivia Wilde

There just isn’t enough story to carry Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” through a feature length running time. While the premise is there, the screenplay (from Katie Silberman, and Carey & Shane Van Dyke) fails to have anything new or interesting to say about the film’s themes, nor does Wilde have the skills as a director to pull it all off. In an attempt to mix different genres, the ... more >

Rush

Ron Howard's best film in some time
Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl and Olivia Wilde
Directed by Ron Howard

Should we accept the common virtue of safety? Or, sometimes in the future when cars become self-regulated, will we--too stubborn to lose the thrill--reject the disappearance of the human element? Pushing toward that thrill is at the axis of "Rush," Ron Howard’s superb film about Formula 1 racing of the seventies. At the end of the push, Peter Morgan’s script suggests, is ecstacy or mortality. ... more >

DEADFALL

Casino heist thrills and snow. Lots of it (snow)
Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde
Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky

Better movies are coming in the next couple of weeks, is what I kept repeating to myself as I sat through “Deadfall," an incredibly average thriller about people with father issues. Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde play Addison and Liza, two siblings who forged a very deep bond with one another during their young years when they’re alcoholic father put them through hell. Now they’re casino robbers on ... more >

Michelle Pfeiffer

“People like us”

Putting the fam together piece by piece
Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pine and Michelle Pfeiffer
Directed by Alex Kurtzman

Have you heard of “People like Us”? It's by the same studio--Dreamworks--which had released “The Help.” "People" barely even meets that previous mediocre effort, however, and lacks the two name actresses who made "The Help" the film that it was. That "People" was written by the same scribes (Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman; they also directed this new film) who were behind the “Transformers” ... more >

By CRAIG YOUNKIN - February 4, 2010The Good: Sexy “House” star Olivia Wilde will be joining the Daniel Craig film “Cowboys and Aliens,” not a sequel of “Monsters Vs. Aliens” but a cool mash-up of a sci-fi alien flick and a western. The film has some very cool people behind it, screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman (“Star Trek”) are writing the script along with Lost producer Damon Lindeloff ... more >

https://screencomment.com/2010/02/1110/