British, bookish period piece, from an Ian McEwan novel, about a young girl's misreading of the amorous activities of her elders, and its tragic consequences. (A mole on the right cheek links the three different actresses who play the role, Saoirse Ronan in the Thirties, Romola Garai in wartime, and …
Into a time when audiences are being bombarded with thinkfree technology or jiggled to death by indie indifference comes Brooklyn, a three Kleenex (boxes), straight-forwardly emotional little period melodrama about a timid (though not for long) young Irish immigrant (Saoirse Ronan) finding her way through 1950s New York. There are …
Just another pair of pretty faces, Gemma Arterton and the uni-expressional Saoirse Ronan — no match for Interview with a Vampire's Pitt and Cruise - star as mother and daughter vampires in Neil Jordan’s return to the genre that brought him the most commercial success. Jumping back and forth within …
Post-apocalyptic children’s film, sufficiently dark for any full-bloom pessimist, about the remnants of humanity in a run-down underground city, and the two teenagers in search of an exit. Impressive physical production (Terry Gilliam at his greediest could not have asked for more), though the escape route gets a bit theme-parky. …
Hen & Junior farm a secluded piece of land that has been in Junior’s family for generations, but their quiet life is thrown into turmoil when an uninvited stranger shows up at their door with a startling proposal. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre, Foe’s mesmerizing imagery and …
A mighty contest between the cool, interior sci-fi stylings of writer-director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, In Time) and the overheated adolescent emotionality of Twilight creator Stephenie Meyer, who wrote the source material. Meyer wins in the end, but for the first two acts, the tension proves fruitful. Alien parasites known as …
Flinty-faced youngster Saoirse Ronan (looking alarmingly like a young Lara Flynn Boyle) gets her shot as an action heroine in this survival/road trip story set in England after London has been nuked. Who is responsible doesn't matter much, because the sphere of that action is wonderfully small-scale and ordinary: a …
There’s much to admire in indie darling Greta Gerwig’s first solo venture behind the camera, particularly for those willing to overlook colorless screen direction, dialog that thrives on pop culture references, and a pair of running time-padding skits — an anti-abortion pep rally gone wrong and a gym coach assigned …
Director Greta Gerwig reteams with her Ladybird star Saoirse Ronan for a cast-heavy but still nimble adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s story of sisters making a home and making a life in spite of of limited options and opportunties. (Neither Meryl Streep as stern Aunt March nor Emma Watson as …
Fourteen-year-old rape and murder victim, marooned in “the in-between," a/k/a "the blue horizon" dividing life and afterlife, continues to watch over her family, friends, and unapprehended killer, a quintessential creep who looks to be guiltily, self-incriminatingly, in disguise: Stanley Tucci with a blond comb-over hairpiece, paste-on matching mustache, aviator glasses, …
Near the end of Josie Rourke’s pox-and-all rendition of Mary Stuart’s misadventures in monarchy (at the outset, she is former Queen of France, current Queen of Scotland, and hopeful Queen of England), the beleaguered Catholic asks her Protestant cousin Elizabeth (Margot Robbie), “How did it come to this?” We know …
A star turn in Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird made it clear that Saoirse Ronan could play contemporary as well as period, so her performance here as a blushing English bride approaching her wedding bower in a seaside hotel circa 1962 shouldn’t pose any danger of pigeonholing. Still, she’s awfully good at …
Anton Chekhov’s play about a couple of writers — one nascent, one established —and a couple of actresses — one aspiring, one not retiring — gathered for a family reunion at a lake house in the country proves to be unfilmable, at least here. It could be that the manifest …
In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and eager rookie Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) take on the case, the two find …