Category: Screen Time – The Melodious Report – Film Reviews

Screenwriter Peter Gamble joins the 49th Denver Film Festival to present the dream that became history.

by Melodie Miller | November 2, 2026

Anthony Ippolito, as Sylvester Stallone, celebrates during a training run through Philadelphia in a scene from “I Play Rocky.” (Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios, Baha Productions and Fireside Films)

The studio executives wanted the “Rocky” script, but not the unknown actor who wrote it, Sylvester Stallone. They wanted a star. They didn’t realize they were looking at one.

“I Play Rocky,” directed by Peter Farrelly and written by Peter Gamble, stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone, who gives an award-worthy performance as Gamble’s words jump off the page.

Chris Rosen of The Ankler interviews Peter Gamble at the Tattered Cover in Denver. (Melodie Miller / CU Independent)

Melodie Miller spoke with Gamble on the 49th Denver Film Festival red carpet and at the Tattered Cover in Denver about his journey of turning a dream into reality.

Read the full story by Melodie Miller in the CU Independent.

Screen Time with Melodie Miller: Anthony Ippolito embodies Sylvester Stallone in “I Play Rocky”

Read more stories by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

An epic farce that invites a temporary suspension of disbelief — a fun place to be.

by Melodie Miller | October 28, 2026

Jeremy Swift, left, plays Storm Grandquist, a narcissistic writer escorted by Elizabeth Ford, played by Natalie Gold, to the Big Literary Award celebration in Telluride. (Courtesy of By And Large Medialabs)

Director Sheryl Glubok’s road trip comedy, “Welcome to the Fishbowl,” screened at the 49th Denver Film Festival on Oct. 23 at MCA Denver Holiday Theater as one of the festival’s Colorado Spotlight series.

Filmed and set in Colorado, the screwball comedy uses the landscape as a backdrop for a chaotic comedy of remarriage that includes stolen cars, a jailbreak, and second chances.

Melodie Miller sat down with director Glubok and cast members Jeremy Swift, known for “Ted Lasso,” Natalie Gold, known for “Succession,” and Marin Hinkle, known for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” to discuss the making of the film.

Read the full story by Melodie Miller in the CU Independent.

Screen Time with Melodie Miller: Welcome to the Fishbowl unleashes Chaos in Colorado

Read more stories by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

Joe Lieberman, a politician who built his career putting country before party

by Melodie Miller | October 20, 2026

Senator Joe Lieberman, who represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate for 24 years, waves to a crowd. (Courtesy of “Centered: Joe Lieberman”)

Screen Time with Melodie Miller is a review column that looks beyond the trailer and connects audiences to movie perspectives.

What does it look like when a politician puts country over party? Packed with vignettes of wins, losses, and reinvention, the 2024 film “Centered: Joe Lieberman” by award-winning writer and director Jonathan Gruber follows the Connecticut senator’s 24-year Senate career of wins, losses, and reinvention.

From the Yale students who helped elect him to the Connecticut state senate, including a young volunteer named Bill Clinton, to his run as an independent after his party abandoned him.

The film is a portrait of a man whose center was rooted in independence, integrity, and initiative.

“Don’t make a decision based on what you saw in TikTok,” Gruber said.

Read the full story by Melodie Miller in CU Independent Student News.

Screen Time with Melodie Miller: “Centered: Joe Lieberman” shows that the center is not an empty space

Read more stories by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

A critique of power, its destructive excess, and those who cling to its bounty

Tom Cruise plays Curtis as Digger Rockwell in “Digger,” holding the ten-cent shovel his wildcatter grandfather used to build the family’s enormous wealth. (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Spoiler Alert: This review discusses the film’s ending.

Screen Time with Melodie Miller, a review column that looks beyond the trailer and connects audiences to movie perspectives.

In Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Digger,” Tom Cruise trades stunts for self-reckoning. Cruise plays Curtis, a community theater actor who plays Digger, an oil baron who saves no one but himself. Iñárritu stages an apocalyptic play, “Fossil Fools,” within the surreal world of the film.

Screen Time gives the film a Melodious Thumbs Up. Cruise and Riz Ahmed earn praise for their performances as men opposed in their ideals but yoked and compromised by lies.

If you are looking for truths without chases, read the full story at the CU Independent. Decide whether the film earns the Melodious Thumbs Up.

Screen Time with Melodie Miller: “Digger” feeds us realities we would rather not eat

Read more stories by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

The chilling ‘post-truth’ mechanics of Putin’s Russia and its coercive control

by Melodie Miller | October 5, 2026

Jude Law as Vladimir Putin and Paul Dano as Vadim Baranov appear in “The Wizard of the Kremlin.” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment/Gaumont)

Screen Time with Melodie Miller, a review column that looks beyond the trailer and connects audiences to movie perspectives.

In a remote, frozen blue forest far from Moscow’s politics, Vladimir Putin’s former spin doctor walks his dog without once looking over his shoulder. Snow-encrusted trees twist behind him like prison barbed wire, a fence he helped build. The silence feels more like a warning than a peaceful retirement.

The Melodious Report breaks down Olivier Assayas’ “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” a film adapted from Giuliano da Empoli’s novel.

The film traces two paths that open after the fall of the Soviet Union, one toward wealth and one toward power; both lead to the Kremlin’s door. Jude Law plays Putin, icy cold in appearance and soul. Paul Dano plays Vadim Baranov, a reserved, steady strategist who rides alongside Putin as he rises to power.

Released on streaming platforms weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, it is a portrait of political power, psychological control and dark Russian humor that may serve as a cautionary tale.

See if “The Wizard of the Kremlin” earns a Melodious Thumbs Up.

Read the full story by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

Screen Time with Melodie Miller: ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin’: a cautionary tale

Read more stories by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

The poster released by 20th Century Studios shows, from left, Josh Brolin as Bangley, Jacob Elordi as Hig, Margaret Qualley as Cima, and Guy Pearce as Pops, with Jasper the dog, in “The Dog Stars.” (20th Century Studios via IMDb)

Screen Time with Melodie Miller, a review column that looks beyond the trailer and connects audiences to movie perspectives.

A 1956 Cessna, nicknamed “The Beast,” glides over the conifer-filled canyons, and for a moment, the end of the world looks peaceful. Then the violence begins.

The Melodious Report takes a closer look at Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars,” adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel. Starring Jacob Elordi and Josh Brolin as two survivors guarding an abandoned airport in post-apocalyptic Erie, Colorado, the film weighs violence toward strangers against the risk of human connection. The review draws parallels between the film and today’s immigration debates, pandemic isolation and misinformation.

The film offers a portrait of a divided America.

Speaking at a live Colorado Public Radio event, Heller responded to the film’s mixed critical reception in a conversation with CPR’s Ryan Warner at the Denver Press Club. The Melodious Report attended and photographed the event.

Read the full story by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

“The Dog Stars”: A mirror to a divided America

Read more stories by Melodie Miller at the CU Independent.

Hercules (1997) Walt Disney Studios (Photograph courtesy of IMDB.com)

Kevin Reynold’s Risen (2016), set in 33 CE, stars Joseph Fiennes as Clavius, a Roman Tribune in Judea who is tasked with finding the missing body of Jesus Christ.

Jim Caviezel stars as Jesus Christ in Benedict Fitzgerald’s and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. (Photo courtesy of IMBD, The Passion of the Christ).

William Wylers Ben Hur (1959) starred Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur. (Ben Hur Film 1959 Stock Photos, Getty Images).

• https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?phrase=ben+hur+film+1959