REVIEW: Bridge of Spies [2015]

“So everyone will hate me, but at least I’ll lose” I’m sure it was a foregone conclusion that Steven Spielberg would choose to direct Matt Charman‘s Bridge of Spies himself the instant it crossed his Dreamworks desk. The story possesses all the earmarks the director has gravitated towards for years, namely an unlikely hero finding himself in the position to do something historically extraordinary to save those who aren’t. “Unlikely hero” because who would peg an insurance lawyer—reveling in smooth talk about his firm’s willingness to cover one collision despite…

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REVIEW: Nancy, Please [2013]

“I want you to be on my side” We know we’ve reached the crucial moment of Andrew Semans’ Nancy, Please when a distraught Paul (Will Rogers) finds himself at ex-roommate Nancy’s (Eleonore Hendricks) door in the hope his copy of Charles Dickens’ Little Dorsitt is on the other side. Panicked, paranoid, and needy in an emotionally damaged way, he has begun to believe two years of labor have been rendered moot at the eleventh hour because he forgot the book—who’s annotations are key to writing his graduate thesis—while moving out.…

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