Maleficent
First screened in June 2014
Director: Robert Stromburg. Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Juno Temple, Brenton Thwaites, Isobelle Molloy, Michael Higgins, Ella Purnell, Jackson Bews, Kenneth Cranham, Hannah New, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, voice of Janet McTeer. Screenplay: Linda Woolverton (based loosely on the tales of Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm and the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, written by Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright, and Milt Banta). Twitter Capsule:
So many tacky shots and then, sporadically, a mesmerizing one. Seems confused about messages and divided on aesthetics.
VOR:②
Theoretically laudable try at understanding the demonized. Pointed reflections on Jolie persona. Glimmers of how a great fairy-tale film could look. Many more of how it shouldn't.
