The Boys are Back!
Is revisiting the zaniness of Trainspotting (1996) 20 years later worth the trip? (Pun intended.) I guess if you’re wondering if Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, or Begbie made the decision to… Read more about T2: Trainspotting (R) ★★★½…
Kong: Skull Island is a blast.
Almost exactly a year ago, my husband and I ran around the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando. We passed by a large barricaded area surrounded by high… Read more about Kong: Skull Island (PG-13) ★★★…
Logan is the tenth X-Men movie . . . and might just be the best.
When I review a film from any franchise that has what might be described as “rabid fans”—be it Star Wars,… Read more about Logan (R) ★★★½…
Oscar Blog Part 4-Final Oscar Blog!
Wow, Oscar weekend 2017 is here! We are very excited over here at Sarah’s Backstage Pass, as this is a huge weekend for us! We love viewing the Academy… Read more about Oscar Blog-Part 4 Best Documentary, Best Original Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup & Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song…
Oscar Blog Part 3
*BEST DIRECTOR – Damien Chazelle, La La Land, Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea (Should win)
Nominees: Denis Villeneuve, Arrival, Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge, Damien Chazelle, La La Land, Kenneth Lonergan,… Read more about Oscar Blog Part 3-Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design…
Oscar Blog Part 2
Hi again, here’s the next installment; happy reading. Wow, it’s getting exciting the last week before Oscar. Hey, do you have your tickets to the best viewing party in Chicagoland? I’ll… Read more about Oscar Blog Part 2, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Animated Film…
Hey comedy directors: when your end-credits blooper reel is funnier than the rest of your movie, you’ve failed.
Fist Fight should have at least been decent; its trailers gave me hope. It stars the high-strung,… Read more about Fist Fight (R) ★½…
It’s Oscar Time!
As an avid life-long Academy Award watcher, I’ve always enjoyed attempting to see all Oscar-worthy films, along with selecting my personal winners. The Oscars are my Super Bowl so to speak, an… Read more about Oscar’s BackStage Pass Blog 2017 Part 1-Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor…
The Lego Batman Movie is fun (and funny), but not quite as awesome as its predecessor.
The Lego Movie surprised everyone in 2014. Nobody expected it to be good, much less one of the… Read more about The Lego Batman Movie (PG) ★★★…
Top 20 (Award-Worthy) Films of 2016 Listed in order of favorites starting with #1
*Please note that I have not screened Martin Scoreses’s Silence this list may change.
1. Arrival—Science Fiction, based on the… Read more about Sarah’s Top 20 Movies of 2016…
Heartwrenching Family Drama with Excellent Performances
Manchester by the Sea is a movie wherein the more you discuss the great aspects of the film, the more it sounds like your worst nightmare. And by discussing… Read more about Manchester By the Sea (R) ★★★½…
Upbeat Musical with Beautiful Stars
Opening on a warm California winter’s day, we view a typical LA freeway traffic jam and an over-the-top atypical song and dance number; La La Land thus proclaims itself as… Read more about La La Land (PG-13) ★★★½…
James McAvoy helps save M. Night Shyamalan from himself in Split.
Like many others, I have been frustrated by M. Night Shyamalan’s career. Since I am a big fan of his first five movies—The Sixth… Read more about Split (PG-13) ★★★…
Patriots Day is a powerful reminder of this country at its best.
As I left for the Patriots Day screening, my husband asked me to remind him what I was seeing. After I told him,… Read more about Patriots Day (R) ★★★½…
Raw Emotion Strikes a Chord with Universal Themes
Superficially, one might sum up Moonlight by declaring that it presents three chapters of a gay black Miami man’s life. However, the film delves much deeper than… Read more about Moonlight (R) ★★★★…
Ben Affleck’s really weird gangster film is a dud.
“What. Is. Happening?!?”
While watching Live by Night, I turned to the person next to me and asked this question several times. She was equally… Read more about Live By Night (R) ★½…
I make my annual Top 10 list based on my favorite movies—which are not always the films that I think are the “best” (read: award-worthy). I consider which movies I know I’ll return to… Read more about Erika’s Favorite Movies of 2016…
22nd Critics Choice Awards and Red Carpet Interviews by Sarah Knight Adamson
The 22nd Annual Critics Choice Awards, which includes the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Television Journalists Association Red [Blue] Carpet, was the spotlight… Read more about Critics Choice Awards 2016 Santa Monica, CA Winners and Red Carpet Interviews…
When is an alien invasion movie not about an alien invasion?
Some of my favorite films (Looper, About Time, Safety Not Guaranteed, Back to the Future, Predestination) and novels (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Life After… Read more about Arrival (PG-13) ★★★½…
An Invitation to Attend a Film Screening at Pixar Studios
Don’t you just love it when the sun, the moon, and the stars all align? Typically, I receive special film screening notices fairly regularly that… Read more about Pixar Animation Studios Steve Jobs Theater Visit…
This movie is nuts.
The trailers for The Accountant would lead you to believe that it is a tense thriller in which Ben Affleck plays a high-functioning autistic man (Christian Wolff) who is both the… Read more about The Accountant (R) ★★★…
Sully is the movie America needs right now.
Time is on Sully’s side.
But it wasn’t on Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s (Tom Hanks) side on January 15, 2009, when a flock of Canadian geese took… Read more about Sully (PG-13) ★★★½…
Don’t Breathe keeps you breathless and gasping for air.
It has been an extremely long time since there has been a truly scary, jaw-dropping, tormenting and suspenseful horror/thriller. Don’t Breathe, co-written by Fede Alvarez and… Read more about Don’t Breathe (R) ★★★★ by Patty Babin…
War Dogs doesn’t know what it wants to be.
When I heard Todd Phillips was directing War Dogs, I became uneasy, even though I’m a huge fan of Old School and the first Hangover film… Read more about War Dogs (R) ★★½…