Clockwise from top left: Nicole Kidman in "Australia," Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road," Tom Cruise in "Valkyrie," and Jeffrey Wright in "Cadillac Records."
Clint Eastwood walks tall one last time. Meryl Streep is one tough nun. Beyonce and Mos Def jam it up in old Chicago blues.
Hollywood’s holiday movie rush is about to break on us. “Gran Torino.” “Doubt.” “Cadillac Records,” and a whole lot more.
A Hollywood Frost interviews a Hollywood Nixon. Tom Cruise rides as a Nazi rebel in “Valkyrie.” “Titanic” lovers Leo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet are off the boat in “Revolutionary Road.” We’ve got “Milk” and “Australia,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button.
This hour, On Point: We’ll talk with top critics on the holiday haul at the movies.
You can join the conversation. What’s the year-end film you’ve already loved? What are you looking forward to? Are the movies still our escape in hard times — or are they too expensive? Tell us what you think.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
With us in our studio is Ty Burr, film critic for The Boston Globe. He blogs at Movie Nation.
And joining us from Pasadena, Calif., is Claudia Puig, film critic for USA Today.
Tags: arts, culture, entertainment, movies
I like Claudia a lot, I know of Ty but unfortunately I can’t say I’m familiar with his writing. At any rate I really like the idea of a movie hour and can’t wait to listen.
Posted by Sam, on December 12th, 2008 at 8:30 am ESTCan’t wait to see Cruise as Col. Stauffenberg. Although, knowing how Hollywood handles history I wonder how the story ends. Perhaps Hitler will be killed by that bomb after all.
Posted by Alex, on December 12th, 2008 at 9:28 am ESTReally looking forward to seeing “The Spirit”.
I love the source material.
At one point, they were going to release it in January (which is universal for “This is a bad movie”), but they moved it to Christmas.
I have no idea if first-time solo director Frank Miller can make a good flick, though…
Posted by LtMarvel, on December 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am EST“Heaviosity” from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall I believe.
Posted by Richard, on December 12th, 2008 at 11:30 am ESTI can’t believe your critic said that “Slumdog Millionaire” had no stars!! Anil Kapoor is one of the biggest stars in India.
The provincialism of the American movie industry is ridiculous. We need to pay attention to movies from outside our shores – “Slumdog Millionaire” is a total Bollywood film. We only paid attention because it was made by a British filmmaker.
Let’s get over our prejudices.
Posted by Kara, on December 12th, 2008 at 11:44 am ESTI enjoyed the hour though I would probably recommend at least one critic like Mike Mayo with more broadcast training next time.
Posted by Sam, on December 12th, 2008 at 8:27 pm ESTIf you have not seen “Slumdog Millionaire” then you should avoid listening to this episode. The clip that they play ruins a pivotal, wonderful moment in the movie. I am so disappointed that this clip was chosen on behalf of the listeners who have yet to see this beautiful film.
Posted by Alexis, on December 13th, 2008 at 2:35 pm EST“Slumdog Millionaire” rocks!
Posted by topic, on December 30th, 2008 at 9:17 am EST