Tag Archives: Katherine Waterston

Inherent Vice

14 March 2024 By in Movies, Uncategorized Tags: , , Leave a comment

Theaters:  4 October 2014 (NYFF)

Streaming:  17 February 2015

Runtime:  149 minutes

Genre:  Comedy–Neo-Noire Crime–Drama–Mystery

els:  6.0/10

IMDB:  6.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  74/100

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  53/100

Metacritic Metascore:  81/100

Metacritic User Score:  7.3/10

Awards: Nominated Best Adapted Screenplay–Nominated Best Custume Design: Academy Awards

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay by:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Written by: Thomas Pynchon

Music by:  Jonny Greenwood

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix–Josh Brolin–Katherine Waterston

Film Locations:  USA

Budget:  $20 million

Worldwide Box Office:  $14.7 million

While waiting for Dune Part 2 I’ve been catching up on Josh Brolin movies. This is a don’t blink movie. There are enough jigsaw pieces to the plot that it takes almost till the end of the movie to put all the pieces back together and it is likely that a few pieces will remain hidden under the table, because well, you blinked.

Plot synopsis: Chinatown meets Big Lebowski. Inherent Vice comes in third.

Definition of Inherent Vice for the curious:

Inherent vice, aka a latent defect, refers to a natural characteristic of goods or property that can cause them to deteriorate, become damaged, or spoil. Insurance companies typically exclude coverage for losses resulting from this inherent quality or defect. Here are some examples where an inherent vice exclusion would apply:

  1. Books: If books deteriorate due to acid in the paper from the manufacturing process.
  2. Film: When film deteriorates over time due to instability of the chemicals it contains.
  3. Food: If food deteriorates due to improper storage temperatures.
  4. Grain: Spontaneous fermentation or combustion of improperly dried grain.

In essence, inherent vice is a hidden flaw or characteristic that makes the item an unacceptable risk for carriers or insurers. It is usually an insurance exclusion for marine policies.

Source: http://www.insuranceopedia.com

It’s Magic-Fantasy Will Set You Free

7 December 2017 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  (Theaters-2016; Streaming-2017)  Rated: PG-13  Runtime: 133 minutesM Beasts 2016

Genre: Action-Adventure-Family-Fantasy

els – 7.0/10

IMDb – 7.4/10

Amazon – 4.4/5 stars

Rotten Tomatoes Critics – 6.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes Audience – 3.9/5

Metacritic Metascore – 66/100

Metacritic User Score – 7.3/10

Directed by:  David Yates

Written by:  J.K. Rowling

Produced by:  David Heyman, Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling, Lionel Wigram

Music by:  James Newton Howard

Cast:  Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler

B Beasts 2001.jpgJ.K. Rowling, in 2001, wrote and published a Hogwarts textbook, under the pseudonym of Newt Scamander, on the magical world of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; a slim encyclopedic volume of fictional animals that made up the enchanted universe of Harry Potter and his bewitched school chums.  The book, though imaginative, generally did not interest anyone much past age of 12, being just a compendium of beasts without any pretense of a story or plot, but it did spin-off this wonderful film, a charming tale of magic and adventure, 70 years before Harry Potter, in the streets of New York.

The movie opens with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arriving in New York for a brief stopover before continuing onto Arizona to further his research into “Fantastic Beasts” but almost immediately has an itinerary change due to one of his creatures escaping from his improbably bottomless briefcase. Promptly the escaped beast goes on a hunt for anything shiny: usually solid gold, resulting in a hilarious wizard and beast chase through the streets and banks of New York.  Compounding Newt’s creature capturing problems is an anti-magical society trying to expose and eliminate all witches and wizards along with a controlling magical political hierarchy attempting to keep everything secret and under wraps, including the threat posed by impending arrival of arch-villain and dark wizard, Gellert Grindlewald (Johnny Depp).

David Yates, the director, and Rowling have put together a lively romp of fun through the magical world of New York, enhanced with exemplary acting by just about all involved.  J.K. Rowling continues to surprise her fans, including me, with the depth of her talent, by adroitly changing roles from an accomplished author to a novice, but never-the-less, a master producer and screenplay writer for this movie. I found this movie heads and lizard tails above the Harry Potter movies, mainly because Harry Potter’s sub-par acting was absent. Make time to see this entertaining film for itself, and ultimately, to keep you abreast of the likely sequels.