AARP Eye Center
‘Lily Tomlin Is My Hero’
By Bill Newcott, January 8, 2016 02:24 PM
“I’ve been in this business for 47 years,” Sam Elliott tells Meg Grant at a Variety/Movies for Grownups Film Series screening in Hollywood, “and those two days I worked on this film [with Lily Tomlin] were the best two days I’ve had.”
And the Winners Are...
Spotlight has been named the Movies for Grownups Best Movie of the year by the editors of AARP The Magazine. Our top acting awards went to Lily Tomlin and Bryan Cranston. CLICK HERE to see the complete list of winners — who will have to wait until February 8 to pick up their trophies at our annual event in Beverly Hills. 
...But Wait, There’s More!
borWe've got one more prize to bestow — this year’s Movies for Grownups Readers’ Choice Award — but we need your help, and time’s running out! VOTE HERE — then we’ll tally the ballots. The winner you choose will be honored at the Movies for Grownups Awards on February 8.
This Weekend at the Movies
Designates a Movies for Grownups Editors’ Choice
New in Theaters
The Revenant
Mauled by a bear and left for dead by his Wild West comrades, a grizzled frontiersman (Leonardo DiCaprio) survives against the odds to seek — and wreak — vengeance on those who abandoned him. Grizzly Adams this ain’t.
New at Home
Sicario
This brutal action film follows an idealistic U.S. border patrol agent (Emily Blunt) as she joins an elite task force bent on toppling a feared Mexican drug lord. Benicio del Toro, who won an Oscar for Traffic, is even better here as a shadowy advisor to the task force.
The Walk
Robert Zemeckis’s thrilling account of how Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) walked a high wire between the World Trade Center towers in 1974 will leave you breathless. Acrophobics need not attend.
Infinitely Polar Bear
Mark Ruffalo is irresistible as a Boston father struggling with bipolar disorder while raising two spirited daughters. The film is based on the childhood of director Maya Forbes, and her affection for her characters shines through.
Still Out There
Intimate — no, make that virtually voyeuristic — this portrait of a long-married couple ( Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) finally facing up to a conflict that has been brewing for more than four decades is one of the most finely realized visions of marriage ever put on screen.
The Big Short
Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell and Brad Pitt star in this account of the investors who saw the 2007 financial crash coming — and cleaned up while everyone else lost their shirts. Director Adam McCary literally stops the action to put the likes of chef Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez before the camera to explain the mechanics of Loanageddon.
Bridge of Spies
In this true-life Cold War-era story, Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks as a modest lawyer thrown into negotiating the swap of a Soviet agent for captured U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. FULL REVIEW
Carol
Cate Blanchett is heartbreaking as a 1950s wife and mother who finds herself falling in love with a young shopgirl (Rooney Mara). The actors’ total commitment to their roles — including Kyle Chandler’s sensitive turn as Carol’s hurt and confused husband — lift the story clear of its sudsy premise.
Concussion
Are you ready for some football? Maybe not: Will Smith gives a transformative performance as the Pittsburgh medical examiner who discovered that football players are susceptible to brain injury from repeated blows to the head. Albert Brooks is a delight as his seen-everything boss. FULL REVIEW
Creed
And the seventh ( Rocky film, that is) shall be the best: Creator Sylvester Stallone turned the writing and directing duties over to Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station), who cast the wonderful Michael B. Jordan as a young boxer who asks Rocky to mentor him. FULL REVIEW
The Hateful Eight
Eight armed, murderous characters are trapped together in a snowbound mountain cabin. What could go wrong? Quentin Tarantino and his all-star cast (including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Dern) count the ways.
In the Heart of the Sea
Ron Howard’s epic vision of an 1820s whaling ship under attack by its target is spectacular as long as the fins are flying. Once the sailors find themselves bobbing about in lifeboats thousands of miles from shore, however, our interest starts to drift as well. FULL REVIEW
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Joy
A snappy script and energetic performances by Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen and Isabella Rossellini keep things popping in this fact-based story of the woman who became a QVC sensation by inventing the Miracle Mop.
The Lady in the Van
Everyone benefits from the company of elders. But what happens when one of them parks her van in your driveway and lives there for 14 years? In this fact-based dramedy, Maggie Smith stars as Mary Shepherd, the lady in the film’s title; Alex Jennings is her gobsmacked host, playwright Alan Bennett.
Love the Coopers
Or not, as a mishmash of story lines lead up to a Christmas Eve family showdown. Still, Diane Keaton and John Goodman make charming “loving warriors.” FULL REVIEW
The Night Before
The Hangover meets Bad Santa in Seth Rogen’s latest dirty-mouthed-druggie-discovers-his-sensitive-side comedy.
Bring a hanky. Better yet, a box of ’em. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are extraordinary as a mother and her five-year-old son who escape after being held captive in a single small room for the youngster’s entire life. With Joan Allen and William H. Macy. FULL REVIEW
Sisters
Best buds Amy Poehler and Tina Fey return as siblings who learn their parents are selling the family home — and decide to throw one last high school-style blast.
Spotlight
In one of the year’s best films, Michael Keaton stars as the Boston Globe editor who coached his ace reporters ( Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams are two) through their outing of pedophile priests. FULL REVIEW
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
OK fans, you can exhale: Writer-director J. J. Abrams has created a sequel worthy of George Lucas’s original. The new cast members (including Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac) are immensely appealing — but the true treasure here is the return of original stars Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and, briefly, Mark Hamill. FULL REVIEW
Trumbo
Bryan Cranston is compelling as Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter jailed and blacklisted during the Red Scare of the 1940s. Instead of demonizing Hollywood commie-hunters, the film shows how demagoguery can force good people to make devastating choices. A tale for our times? FULL REVIEW
Youth
As crumbling old friends who meet up at a crumbling Swiss health spa for their annual get-together, Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel are pitch-perfect in this dreamlike meditation on age, friendship and memory. FULL REVIEW
Also of Interest
- Kathy Griffin to host her second Movies for Grownups Awards
- 8 Common mistakes older job seekers make
- Quiz: Do you know how to prepare for a disaster?
- Join AARP: savings, resources and news for your well-being
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