Shameless Self Expression

Set in London in the 60s, Carey Mulligan plays a teenager whose father (Alfred Molina) is happy that she’s trying to get into Oxford…so she can meet important people. She meets an older man (Peter Sarsgaard) who seems very worldly and sophisticated to this girl on the verge of womanhood, and they begin a romantic relationship. Mulligan has always been a bit of a wannabe sophisticate and is far more intellectually-minded than most girls her age (she wants to live in Paris), so it’s no surprise that this older man would seem to suit her. Amazingly, Dad doesn’t frown too much on the relationship, especially when he hears that Sarsgaard knows author C.S. Lewis. Who needs college when your daughter can marry a well-connected man who can help her climb the social ladder? More concerned with all this is Mulligan’s teacher (Olivia Williams) who hears the gossip and whispers, but Mulligan is defiant in pursuing this relationship. Sarsgaard takes the girl to auctions and jazz clubs, and intr...

Scarlett Johansson plays an American journalism student in London who is called on stage at a performance by magician Splendini (Woody Allen), and things get weird. In one of those ‘step inside the box and I’ll make you disappear’ illusions, Johansson is spooked by the spirit of recently deceased Brit journo Joe Strombel (Ian McShane). Strombel gives Johansson the scoop he himself was poised to write about; Rich, handsome Brit aristocrat Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman) is the sought after Tarot Card Killer, a serial killer of prostitutes. Johansson tells Splendini (AKA Sid Waterman) about her experience, and the duo start investigating Lyman. Once Johansson meets the handsome aristocrat, however, romantic sparks shoot off. Surely this charming nice guy can’t possibly be a serial murderer, right? Charles Dance plays a newspaper editor, Anthony Stewart Head is a detective, and Julian Glover is Lord Lyman, Peter’s father.   The second collaboration between writer-director Woody A...

TV reporter Jane Fonda and long-haired freelance cameraman Michael Douglas stumble upon one helluva story when the nuclear plant they’re doing a routine puff piece on suddenly appears to have a near-problematic incident. And by that I mean that a nuclear meltdown was narrowly avoided by some risky but quick thinking from veteran plant supervisor Jack Lemmon. The TV network fearing a lawsuit sees Fonda’s station unable to use the footage they captured of the incident. And yet the powers that be insist that there was no risk of any harm whatsoever, it was just a minor hiccup, apparently. Cover-up, anyone? Fonda tries to get Lemmon to talk after tracking him down in a bar, and at first he is reluctant to speak. But some digging of his own gives him a sudden burst of conscience, and he decides he wants to do something about the situation before it gets even worse. Peter Donat and James Karen play Fonda’s superiors, whilst Richard Herd and Scott Brady are the plant higher-ups trying to ...