Search for Phedon Papamichael
Raiders of the Lost Ark was a nearly perfect action movie – upon its release in the early 1980s, it redefined the genre for decades to come. It also provided a trap for co-creators Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, forcing them to repeatedly tr...
U.S. Release Date: 2023-06-30
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence)
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, ...
The events depicted in The Trial of the Chicago 7 occurred in 1968-69. Aaron Sorkin began working on the screenplay in 2007. But, oh how relevant the story chronicled in this movie feels today... What is it that George Santayana wrote in The L...
U.S. Release Date: 2020-10-16
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Violence, Drugs)
Genre: Drama
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Ben Shenkman, Michael Keaton, ...
It’s said that the sports movie format works best when telling a true story. Director James Mangold, after having spent some time in the X-Men universe (he helmed both The Wolverine and Logan), has returned to the real world to direct two A-...
U.S. Release Date: 2019-11-15
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Profanity)
Genre: Drama
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Matt Damon, Tracy Letts, Ray McKinnon, ...
For a movie about small people, Downsizing certainly thinks big…too big, perhaps. Director/co-writer Alexander Payne has done such a good job of world-building that there are far too many ideas, subplots, and opportunities for one two-hour f...
U.S. Release Date: 2017-12-22
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Brief Nudity)
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Matt Damon, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, ...
When Snow White and the Huntsman was released four years ago, it successfully transformed one of movie-dom’s beloved fairy tales (known primarily through the Disney animated classic) into a fantasy adventure. The Huntsman: Winter’s War, a part-pr...
U.S. Release Date: 2016-04-22
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Sexual Content)
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain, ...
The Monuments Men is a World War 2 story, but it's unlike the traditional World War 2 stories we have become familiar with over the years. Many of the historical touchstones are present, including Normandy and The Battle of the Bulge. Roosevelt, Tr...
U.S. Release Date: 2014-02-07
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Mature Themes)
Genre: ADVENTURE/DRAMA
Director: George Clooney
Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, ...
Nostalgia can be a wonderful thing, especially when a director tweaks it and plays with it. With Nebraska, Alexander Payne, working from a screenplay credited to Bob Nelson, targets a very specific slice of Americana that has often been romanticize...
U.S. Release Date: 2013-11-22
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content)
Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, ...
This is 40 has the feel of one of those French "family comedies" - sort of like the kind of thing brought to the screen by Cedric Klapisch, except with more profanity and vulgarity. There's not much in the way of a conventional narrative. This is 4...
U.S. Release Date: 2012-12-21
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content, Nudity, Drugs)
Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA
Director: Judd Apatow
Cast: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, ...
The Descendants may be director Alexander Payne's finest outing to date. The man who began his career behind the camera with withering satires (Citizen Ruth, Election) has moved into dramatic comedies (About Schmidt, Sideways) that simultaneously ...
U.S. Release Date: 2011-11-18
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity)
Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY
Director: Alexander Payne
Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, ...
"Et tu, Brute?" The Ides of March illustrates the universally acknowledged truism that nothing can corrupt idealism more completely than politics. The sad thing about this American tragedy is that not a single twist, turn, or betrayal is difficu...
U.S. Release Date: 2011-10-07
MPAA Rating: "R" (Profanity, Sexual Content)
Genre: DRAMA/THRILLER
Director: George Clooney
Cast: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, ...