Kevin Costner – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA, CHAPTER 1 – Review by Susan Granger

July 2, 2024July 4, 2024 Susan Granger Abbey Lee, Georgia MacPhail, Hayes Costner, Horizon: An American Saga, J. Michael Muro, Jena Malone, Jon Baird, Kevin Costner, Tim Guinee

After innumerable accolades for portraying Montana rancher John Dutton in Yellowstone, Kevin Costner left that successful TV series to pursue his passion project: Horizon: An American Saga – four epic films about the settling of the West before and after the Civil War. Costner is – literally – betting the ranch on its success, having mortgaged his 10-acres in Santa Barbara to help finance this budding franchise. Bottom Line: Too many characters pursuing different storylines. Eventually, they’re bound to intersect but – in this incoherent Chapter 1 – they’re unstructured, clichéd and confusing.

Reviews

THE YELLOWSTONE TRILOGY – Review by Susan Granger

January 18, 2023July 7, 2023 Susan Granger John Linson, Kelly Reilly, Kevin Costner, series, Taylor Sheridan, tim mcgraw, Wes Bentley, Yellowstone

With Yellowstone currently wrangling its fifth successful season, its creators – Taylor Sheridan and John Linson – have lured audiences once again into the interconnected Big Sky mythology of the American West, as epitomized by the dysfunctional Dutton dynasty. The Dutton family has owned the Yellowstone since 1883. That prequel series detailed their westward journey from Texas in a wagon train, showing how John Dutton’s great-grandfather, Civil War veteran James and his wife Margaret founded the Dutton ranch on a spot of land chosen by their daughter Elsa for her gravesite.

Reviews

YELLOWSTONE – Review by Susan Granger

February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 Susan Granger 1883, 1932, Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly, Kevin Costner, Paramount Network, Taylor Sheridan, Yellowstone

Now in its fourth season, Kevin Costner’s wildly successful, Western melodrama Yellowstone is a powerful geyser that keeps spewing off sequels. Created by Taylor Sheridan, the Paramount Network’s saga revolves around gruff Montana cattle king John Dutton’s battle to keep his sprawling Yellowstone Ranch out of the hands of wealthy land developers. At his side are his hellcat daughter/lawyer Beth and her husband/foreman Rip Wheeler, who brands devoted ranch hands with a “Y.”

Reviews

LET HIM GO – Review by Susan Granger

February 7, 2021February 7, 2021 Susan Granger diane lane, Kevin Costner, lesley manville, let him go, Thomas Bezucha

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane deliver two of the best performances of their careers in this intense neo-Western as Montana grandparents – George and Margaret Blackledge – whose only son died in a tragic riding accident.

Reviews

THE ART OF RACING THE RAIN – Review by Susan Granger

August 13, 2019August 17, 2019 Susan Granger 0 Comments Kevin Costner, the art of racing the rain

Based on Garth Stein’s best-selling 2008 novel, this dramedy is about a golden retriever named Enzo (raspy voiced by Kevin Costner) whose earnest owner, Denny Swift (Milo Ventimiglia), named him after Italian racing legend Enzo Ferrari. “I was meant to be his dog,” Enzo notes.

Reviews

BLACK OR WHITE — Review by Susan Granger

February 2, 2015June 8, 2020 Susan Granger 0 Comments black or white, Kevin Costner, octavia spencer

Writer/director Mike Binder delves into his own family history for this timely dramedy, starring Kevin Costner as a grieving widower

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AWFJ Movie of the Week, Jan. 26-Feb. 1: BLACK OR WHITE

January 26, 2015February 2, 2015 Nikki Baughan 0 Comments Andre Holland, Anthony Mackie, Bill Burr, Gillian Jacobs, jeanne wolf, Jennifer Ehle, Jillian Estell, Kevin Costner, octavia spencer, Pam Grady, Sandra Kraisirideja

Opening Jan. 30, AWFJ’s Movie of the Week is Black or White, which stars Kevin Costner as a grieving widower fighting for custody of his granddaughter, who he has helped to raise since birth. Read on…