Cinema Siren

The latest foray into the magical wizarding world, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, is brought to us by J.K. Rowling. As the film’s screenwriter, it might be proof positive that she is indeed a muggle, and not a witch in disguise.  It’s not the acting or the world-building, the beasts, or the special effects …

Can Viola Davis do no wrong? She’s at it again, making herself Queen of the Heist Genre, with the help of her female co-stars. Widows stars Davis in the new film from Steve McQueen, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Gone Girl novelist Gillian Flynn, as Veronica, a woman trapped by the loss of her criminal husband …

Green Book Green Book won the Audience Award at the Middleburg Film Festival, along with the 12 other wins it’s racked up. It’s an audience love-fest at every film fest in which it’s been played.  Viggo Mortensen plays bouncer and tough, uncouth Italian-American family man Tony Lip, against Mahershala Ali’s portrayal of Doctor Don Shirley, …

Written for the screen, directed by, and co-starring Joel Edgerton, Boy Erased tackles the subject of conversion therapy camps and in-patient clinics that attempt to alter sexual orientation and gender identity.  Starring Lucas Hedges as Jared Eamons, the son of Baptist preacher Marshall (Russell Crowe) and his stay-at-home mom Nancy (Nicole Kidman), the film follows …

It’s hard to believe the story in new release Can You Ever Forgive Me?, based on writer Lee Israel’s memoir of the same name.  Starring Melissa McCarthy, it follows Israel’s experiences creating forgeries of letters by famous dead authors and playwrights, including Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, and Katherine Hepburn. Director Marielle Heller’s film feels like …