TV Series: Ray Donovan

Premiered: June, 2013
7 Seasons: 2013 - 2020
Number of Episodes: 12 per season
Length of Episode: 55ish minutes
IMBd: 8.3
RT Audience Score: 72/86
cag: Loved it so much!  6
Showtime

Characters:
Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber)
Mickey Donovan (his father) Jon Voight
Abby Donovan (wife)
Bridget Donovan (daughter)
Conner Donovan (son)
Terry Donovan (brother: boxer, club owner, Parkinson's)
Bunchy/Brendan Donovan (brother: still recovering from being abused by a priest when he was a kid)
Daryl (half-brother, Black)
Lena & Avi wholehearted employees

My comments:  Violent, full of boxing (which I hate) and frustration at a horrible father....you'd think I'd hate this.  But Liev Schreiber NAILS this role.  Exquisitely.  Wonderful actors and for the most part great stories.  (I wasn't so crazy about season 4 as the others) Immediate addiction! Loved it.

 

Storyline from IMBd:
          Ray Donovan, a professional "fixer" for the rich and famous in Los Angeles, can make anyone's problems disappear except those created by his own family.
           Set in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous, Ray Donovan does the dirty work for LA's top power players. The one-hour series stars Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award nominee Liev Schreiber in his first lead television role as the go-to guy who makes the problems of the city's celebrities, superstar athletes, and business moguls disappear.
     Ray Donovan is a man of many faces. He's a cool, sophisticated Hollywood player but also a ruthless south Boston thug. He's a devoted family man who has trouble resisting come-ons from attractive clients, and a consummate professional who is also easily pushed to violence. His job as a problem fixer for the Hollywood elite has helped lift him out of the working class to within reach of the wealthy and powerful. But no amount of designer suits, sports cars or gold watches can completely mask his shady line of work, or his humble, blue collar roots. With his brothers always calling for help, his criminal father out of prison and causing trouble, and the FBI watching him like a hawk, Ray might be unable to shake his past.

MOVIE - Spotlight

R (2:07)

Limited release 11/6/15

Viewed 122/10 at ElCon with Sheila

RT Critic:  98  Audience:  96
Critics Consensus: Spotlight gracefully handles the lurid details of its fact-based story while resisting the temptation to lionize its heroes, resulting in a drama that honors the audience as well as its real-life subjects.

Cag:  6  Wonderful movie, superbly done

Directed by Tom McCarthy (who also co-wrote)

Open Road Films

Based on the book by

Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schrieber, John Slattery,

My comments: I'm beginning to realize that my favorite movies are the ones that tell a true story.  Perhaps it's the actors that take on these stories?  Whatever the reason, this ensemble cast and clear, un-boring telling of how a huge coverup was detected was super-interesting from beginning to end.  The acting?  Superb!

RT Summary:  The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.

MOVIE - Fading Gigolo

R (1:38)

Limited release 4/182014 - but this was Opening Day in Tucson

Viewed at ElCon Friday, 5/9/2014

RT Critic: 57 Audience: 50

Cag: 3.5 - Liked it, a fun movie

Directed by John Turturro (he wrote it, too)

Millennium Entertainment

Actors:  Woody Allen, John Turturro, Liev Shreiber, Sofia Vergara, Sharon Stone

My comments:  This was a perfect Friday-after-a-long-day movie.  It was quite fun, nothing earth-shattering, but enjoyable.  I had no idea what it was about, and I always enjoy it when there's a Judaic element - part of the movie was about a very devout Orthodox woman in Brooklyn.... (I'll go to any movie as soon as I see the name "Woody Allen" in it.

Reviews:  Fioravante decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to help his cash-strapped friend, Murray. With Murray acting as his "manager", the duo quickly finds themselves caught up in the crosscurrents of love and money.

Movie - The Reluctant Fundamentalist

R (2:08)

Limited Release April 26,2013

Viewed Sunday, 5/26/2013 at The Loft 

RT Critic: 55% Audience: 71%

Cag:  6/Awesome; Absolutely bowled me over

Directed by Mira Nair (director of Monsoon Wedding, one of my all-time favorites)

IFC Films

(from the book of the same title by Mohsi Hamid)

Liev Schreiber, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, and the wonderfully new-to-me Riz Ahmed (who stole the show, wow!)

My comments:  I had no idea what I was going to see, other than I'd taken the book out of the library and returned it before getting a chance to read it.  So when the credits came on at the beginning of the movie, I was really surprised....Hudson, Schreiber, Sutherland?  I loved the views of Pakistan, Istanbul, New York City.  What I realized when I came out was how tantalizing the "idea" of America and the "American Dream" must be to some, and I can see more and more why people from other countries hate the US.  It didn't get very good reviews from some, but I loved the way it was put together, the story it told, and the way the story was told.  So cudos to writers, actors, and director.  I loved it.

Fandango synopsis: We begin in 2011 in Lahore. At an outdoor café a Pakistani man named Changez (Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist, about his experiences in the United States. Roll back ten years, and we find a younger Changez fresh from Princeton, seeking fortune and glory on Wall Street. The American Dream seems well within his grasp, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson). But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly begins tocrack open between Changez and Erica. Changez's dream soon begins to slip into nightmare: profiled, wrongfully arrested, strip-searched and interrogated, he is transformed from a well-educated, upwardly mobile businessman to a scapegoat and perceived enemy. With time, he begins to hear the call of his own homeland. Taking us through the culturally rich and beguiling worlds of New York, Lahore and Istanbul, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story about conflicting ideologies where perception and suspicion have the power to determine life or death.: