Posts Tagged ‘Joseph Gordon-Levitt’

Short Take: Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance will blow you away. And the tale of political intrigue surrounding it isn’t bad either.

Director: Steven Spielberg

Screenwriters: Tony Kushner, Doris Kearns Goodwin (book)

Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Length: 2h 30m

Synopsis: It is four years into the Civil War. The country and its capital are in turmoil. President Abraham Lincoln has shifted his focus towards passing the 13th Amendment, which would illegalize slavery permanently. The Confederacy, which wants the war to end as badly as the Union, sees such an amendment as a bell tolling the death of the South’s economy. In order for Lincoln to succeed he needs enough votes in the House of Representatives, which he doesn’t yet have. Through coercion and political savvy, Lincoln works against the grain to pass an amendment that even his own cabinet questions. Should such a bill be fought for if the odds of its ratification are slim? Is Lincoln abusing his powers as Commander and Chief? The stakes could not be higher, and the pressure on the president to end the war as soon as possible is overwhelming. His faith is that the new law would actually help bring the fighting to a close, not exacerbate it. Indeed, with the costs of the war already so great, Lincoln sees the bill as the only way to save the very union he presides over.

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Short Take: Culminates one of the finest trilogies of our time

Director: Christopher Nolan

Screenwriters: Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan

Cast: Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman

Length: 2h 44m

Synopsis: It has been eight years since the death of Harvey Dent, and as no one has seen him no one has likewise seen Batman or Bruce Wayne (Bale). Dent’s false reputation had allowed Gotham’s law enforcement to crack down harder on crime than ever before, and the city came to enjoy all of its long overdue good fortune. However, a masked radical named Bane (Hardy) once trained by the League of Shadows has recently laid camp in Gotham’s underground, with an entire army of hardened criminals at his disposal. His plans are to seize the city and finish what Ra’s Al Ghul started by destroying it and its people. Bruce dons the cape and cowl again despite his many lasting injuries and the hatred of the police, but after everything he has done it is Bane’s physical and mental fortitude that may finally be his undoing. The frightening organization of Bane’s forces checkmates the city, and Batman falls to his hand in one-on-one combat, afterwards taken to an inescapable prison halfway round the world. Without its greatest hero Gotham now faces its most trying of times, and Bruce is made to suffer knowing that he’s helpless to save the city he loves. Will this finally be the end of both Batman and Gotham?

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Short Take: The kind of intimate experience that doesn't come around all that often

Director: Jonathan Levine

Screenwriter: Will Reiser

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston, Philip Baker Hall

Length: 1h 39m

Synopsis: Adam (Gordon-Levitt) and his best mate Kyle (Rogen) are two late twenty-somethings just living their lives and trying to get by. Adam and his longtime girlfriend Rachael (Howard) are beginning to hit a rough patch in their relationship, but for Adam the real bad news comes soon after getting a pain in his back checked out by a doctor. He’s hit with the big “C” word that none of us are ever prepared for. The size of the growth and its proximity to his spine gives him about a 50/50 chance of survival, and as it turns out that even split comes to define his world over the months to come. Part of his treatment, aside from torturous chemo therapy, is to see a psychiatrist named Katherine (Kendrick), whom he unintentionally begins to grow close to. With such people around him, in addition to a rather worrisome mother (Huston), Adam tries to do what he can to deal with the confusing and unexpected circumstances. While doing so, he discovers a lot about himself, as well as the close relationships he thought he understood.

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If you haven’t already, read Part 1 here to see our interpretation of the film’s ending.

Part 2 – Taking a Leap of Faith

Being able to visit dreams is no doubt a concept that is difficult to grasp, especially once you try to consider all of the philosophical possibilities attached to such an idea. That this concept forces us to adapt the foundations of our methods of critical thinking, and indeed logic itself, because we are no longer dealing with the “real” but unbridled cognitive enterprise, we must resort to a manner of thinking that requires pure conjectural reasoning and rationality. By this I am suggesting that it would behoove our intentions to successfully explore this movie by thinking more abstractly about it (theoretically, conceptually, etc.), in addition to relying on concrete cues provided by the film’s text* (details observable in some form or fashion that lead to confirmed or implied conclusions). By doing this it may be possible to discover the film’s main goal and purpose. Read the rest of this entry »

Short Take: An absolutely mind-blowing experience - One of the most creative films in years

Director: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige)

Screenwriter: Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige)

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio (Shutter Island), Ken Watanabe (Letters from Iwo Jima), Marion Cotillard (Nine), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer), Ellen Page (Whip It), Cillian Murphy (Sunshine), Tom Berenger (Sinners and Saints), Tom Hardy (RocknRolla), Michael Caine (Harry Brown), Dileep Rao (Drag Me to Hell)

Length: 2h 28m

Synopsis: Neuroscientists Cobb (DiCaprio) and Arthur (Gordon-Levitt) have a unique job, which is to enter the dreams of others and navigate them in order to find out important information – mainly secrets (this is called Extraction). The invention that they use to perform such a task allows for several people to share another person’s dream, which they can more or less construct to their liking. While working within dreams may sound (pardon me) like a dream, the procedure can in fact be very dangerous. Many things can go wrong that can leave the individuals inside a dream with severe psychological problems, not the least of which is the inability to ever be sure if you’re dreaming or not. Cobb and Arthur’s newest assignment asks them to not just steal information from someone’s brain, but plant an idea in it as well (this is called Inception). The mission demands that they recruit a team and delve deeper into someone’s mind than they’ve ever gone before, and the deeper they go the less chance they have of ever waking back up. Read the rest of this entry »