liev schreiber – Dose of Buffa

Separating a boy and his dog is a dangerous idea, but always makes for good entertainment. Isle of Dogs is an animated film that is best suited for adults-and it’s a wonderful time at the movies. First, let me tell you a little bit about the movie.

Writer/director Wes Anderson’s latest explores the lengths at which a 12 year old boy named Atari (Koyu Rankin) will go in order to find the dog assigned to protect him, Spot ( voiced by Liev Schreiber), who was dumped on a island by his vicious uncle. Mayor Kobayashi (Kunichi Numora) fears that his city is becoming saturated with sick dogs (infected with a flu-type virus), so he signs an order that pulls every single dog out of their homes and assigns them to an abandoned island. Thus, the isle of dogs.

In a film stock full of political satire and inside jokes, it’s best to appreciate the little things, because this film has so many wonderful details. Continue reading “‘Isle of Dogs’: An animated film for adults”

When Showtime’s hit series, Ray Donovan premiered in 2013, expectations weren’t high. Creator and showrunner Ann Biderman(Southland) wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with her story about an LA fixer(Liev Schreiber) who cleans up more messes inside his own family than he does for the rich, famous and dangerous people on the West Coast. The low expectations made for a welcome invitation into a new Sunday night entertainment.

The result was a hard hitting simplistic drama that worked well because of a signature cast handpicked by Biderman to escape into this mad souls rotting away on the inside in the face of greed, violence, sickening pasts and everything else that wasn’t nailed to the floor of guilty pleasure vices. Debuting it’s third season on Sunday, July 12th, the series hasn’t skipped a beat and gotten stronger with each hour.

What makes the show tick so perfectly is the brooding, expressive and quietly powerful leading man work from Schreiber. Here is a guy who played the supporting character for decades and waited for his opportunity, just like James Gandolfini did before Tony Soprano, Jon Hamm before Don Draper, and Jeremy Piven before Ari Gold. Continue reading ““Ray Donovan” is a familiar yet potent thrill”