David O. Russell's first feature in eight years, "Amsterdam" starts with the line "A lot of this actually happened." The reality is most of this didn't happen, and only one character has a real-world counterpart who uncovered what was later dubbed the "Business Plot." Fortunately, it's the fictional aspects of "Amsterdam" that are the most [...]
“Queen of the Desert” – “I doubt there is anyone in the world as happy as I am now.” – Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman) Gertrude Bell was a pioneer, an explorer during the turn of the 20th Century, a time when women were generally not pioneers or explorers. Gertrude’s circumstance is even more unique, because [...]
“A United Kingdom” – Effective love stories stir emotion. Effective historical dramas help enlighten. In a recent interview, David Oyelowo (“Selma” (2014), “A Most Violent Year” (2014)) said that after reading the book “Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation”, he wanted to play Seretse Khama on the big screen and then [...]
“Loving” – “Your blood doesn’t know what it wants to be.” In 1958, Sheriff Brooks (Marton Csokas) utters these words to Virginia bricklayer Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton), because he, a white man, married Mildred (Ruth Negga), a black woman. In that place and at that time, interracial marriages were illegal. In 2016, Virginia’s old state [...]
