Saoirse Ronan, Funny and Heartbreaking in "Lady Bird"

She earned Academy Award nominations for her exceptional performances in Atonement and Brooklyn.  Now, Saoirse Ronan is up for another Best Actress Oscar for Universal Pictures' Lady Bird which will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Trinoma, Greenebelt 1) starting February 28.

Directed by Greta Gerwig (herself nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay), Lady Bird also stars Laurie Metcalf (Best Supporting Actress nominee), Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet.

In Lady Bird, Gerwig reveals herself to be a bold new cinematic voice with her directorial debut, excavating both the humor and pathos in the turbulent bond between a mother and her teenage daughter.  Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Ronan) fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird's father (Letts) loses his job.

REEL DEAL: Dallas Buyers Club REVIEW

With oscars over, the spotlight are now with the nominees of the Academy Awards or Oscars. One of which was DALLAS BUYERS CLUB starring Mattew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner. Like most of the oscar nominees, it is a period movie set in the mid 80s about Ron Woodrof who was diagnosed with HIV and was given a month to live.

But Ron was determined to live and will do anything to survive. He went to extremes with unapproved medicines, trying treatments overseas etc. But the interesting part is how he made his treatment an opportunity for him to do business and set up the "Dallas Buyers Club". The topic of HIV/AIDS is actually just the tip of the iceberg as many characters becomes involved in this booming business.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club is also a comeback movie of Jared Leto to acting after a 5 year hiatus. The thing that is a shocker to everyone is the disturbing weight loss of Ron (McConaughey) and Rayon (Leto) which is unbelievably thin and brings scary truth of the effects of drugs and the HIV/AIDS complications.

REEL DEAL: Flight REVIEW

I have never rode a (flying) airplane, but movies showed me how does it feel to fly up in the sky thousands of feet above the ground. I actually feel nervous when things get off the ground, and that's just even with carnival rides, what if something goes haywire while flying in the stratosphere? 


Denzel Washington's movie Flight will bring viewers in a journey up in the heavens and even on the ground which is filled with drama, controversy, conflicts, and even national issues. Flight shares the story of an ill-fated passenger plane which broke down in mid-air and is heading for a free fall. William Whitaker (Denzel) or Whip is the captain of the plane does the unlikely move to invert the plane and made an emergency landing saving a lot of lives. Yet controversy follows after he is accused of drinking alcohol before the flight.

The event leads to a very complicated turn of events and an encounter with unlikely characters which most would be his friends and also his enemies. The movie is made with a lot of human strengths, struggles and weaknesses. Even for non-fliers like me, have felt the nerve wracking feel of falling from the sky and getting in between the pressures of the job and life itself. 

REEL DEAL: Flight SPOTLIGHT

Flight :  Gives Denzel Washington Double Best Actor Nominations

by Emy Abuan

Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) wakes before it's time to take off on a new flight, after an evening of drinking and sex with one of his plane's stewardesses, Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velazquez). Still trying to rouse himself from his hangover, his phone rings, and he answers a call from his ex-wife Deana (Garcelle Beauvais). Deana wants to discuss putting their son through a private school, but Whip doesn't want to discuss it at the moment, claiming he'll talk to her about it when he gets back to Atlanta.