Jim Swill Brings Revolutionary Angst to the CAC
Greta Gerwig Just Wants to Have Fun
This Is Your Director on Drugs
Michael Shannon Gives Chills as Real-Life Contract Killer
Apocalyptic Comedy Gets Wild and Loose in Alternate Hollywood
Rabbit Hole (Review)
0 Comments · Wednesday, January 12, 2011
'Rabbit Hole' does for grief and loss what 'Shortbus' did for sex and the sense of identity we mold from our sexual orientations. We grieve in different ways, and others begin to see and define us by our expressions of that hurt. It changes us — our immersion in loss and/or how we handle our proximity to it and those that we love who are caught in its unshakeable grasp. Grade: A
Made in Dagenham (Review)
Polished workplace comedy makes its points with spunk and wit
0 Comments · Wednesday, January 12, 2011
A determinedly sunny take on the labor struggles of women factory workers at a British Ford plant in 1968, Made in Dagenham is a highly polished comedy with a clear message about equal pay for women. Adapted from William Ivory's seamless script, director Nigel Cole taps into colorful cultural references of the era in order to convey layers of social subtext. Grade: B.
Country Strong (Review)
Country Pop drama barely radio worthy
0 Comments · Friday, January 7, 2011
Writer-director Shana Feste has the misfortune of shepherding a Country music project a year after Jeff Bridges earned his first Academy Award in Scott Cooper’s 'Crazy Heart.' The authenticity of the hard-knock life as a singer-songwriter bent every note in Cooper’s film, which kept it perfectly in tune. But 'Country Strong' tries to glitz the arrangement up into a Country Pop piece, and the results are barely radio worthy. Grade: D-plus.
Season of the Witch (Review)
Flawed period adventure generates unintentional laughs
0 Comments · Friday, January 7, 2011
Obviously, Dominic Sena (Gone in Sixty Seconds) has a degree of comfort working with Nicolas Cage, but there’s no way anyone will buy the off-kilter performer and Ron Perlman as his crusading sidekick in the 14th-century when they sound like they wondered off a mid-1980s buddy picture set. Grade: D-.
Gulliver's Travels (Review)
Jack Black vehicle is dead on arrival
0 Comments · Friday, January 7, 2011
Audiences should be forgiven for thinking that Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) and his adventure on the island of Liliput has anything to do with Jonathan Swift’s classic, because all Black has done is somehow convince director Rob Letterman to shoot 'Travels' as if it were a craptastic 3-D spectacle from Jeff Portnoy, Black’s pandering character from 'Tropic Thunder.' Grade: D-.
Forward Thinking
A look at the 2011 movie slate
0 Comments · Tuesday, January 4, 2011
How about a little forward thinking in 2011? Let’s say goodbye to 2010, at least for a moment (because, like all new year’s resolutions, this one is inevitably doomed to fail) and focus on what is to come, not as the blind wandering around in search of flickering lights in dark art-houses and multiplexes, but with, at the very least, a penlight and an outline of the new horizon.
Social Networks, Deft Docs and Gift Shops
CityBeat writers unveil their favorite films of 2010
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 29, 2010
It was another transitional year at the movies, one in which curious, sometimes frustrating trends emerged or were confirmed: The rise of conceptually complex films that question the nature of “reality” and “truth”; the return of 3-D as a savior; the death of the romantic comedy; the continued fracturing of indie cinema; and the further evolution of distribution methods.
Twisted Visions
A look at 2010's best off-the-wall DVDs
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
I love the year's end. As a writer who delves into the wonders of cinema on DVD, December turns thoughts to the mountains of films consumed over the past 12 months. Believe me, it's a lot. Sussing out the best is an awesome task, but it can lead to hair-pulling conundrums. Where to begin?
A Return to Invisibility?
2010 was a confounding year for black folks at the movies
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
There have always been urban films — from the black exploitation films of the 1970s to the comic movies that capitalized on stand-up performers transitioning to the mainstream to the hood action dramas infused with Hip Hop sensibilities — but it seemed as if black folks would finally be moving on up out of the Hollywood ghetto. Unfortunately, 2010 felt like a step backward.
Law Breakers
It was an epic year for crime dramas
1 Comment · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
2010 was a year filled with attempts to make "crime epics" worthy of the first two Godfathers' ambitions and acting levels, if not always with the same kind of resources available to realize the vision of Coppola's classics. But they've moved beyond the American dream — these new attempts often come from abroad and play the art-house circuit. And, increasingly, they're being made for television.
True Grit (Review)
The Coen brothers craft a remake that's surprisingly deeply felt
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Here's why I'm prepared to call the Coen brothers the greatest living American filmmakers: After 25 years, they not only continue to make great movies but they also keep finding new ways to surprise me. In taking on the second adaptation of Charles Portis' novel 'True Grit,' they've subtly crafted what might be their most deeply felt movie yet. Grade: A.
Perception Is Everything
Movie reality, the struggles of indie cinema and the metaphorical relevance of 'Toy Story 3'
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Summing up a year is always a tricky proposition. It's even trickier at this late date in our rapidly fracturing cultural landscape. Consensus on anything — from our politics to the very nature of reality — is more fleeting than ever in a world where context is obliterated by encroaching, fast-moving technologies that allow us to create our own narrowly defined headspaces.
The King's Speech (Review)
Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush deliver stirring exchanges in period drama
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Colin Firth, hot off his Academy Award-nominated turn last year in A Single Man, returns to period work as King George VI, the father of currently reigning Queen Elizabeth. Bertie, as he was known among the royal family, was the stammering second son of George V (Michael Gambon) who ascended to the throne when his brother abdicated. We get the triumph, frankly, without much of the real struggle, but director Tom Hooper and his actors do their best to make sure we don’t care about anything other than what they give us. Grade: A-.
Yogi Bear (Review)
CGI-based misadventure is infantile and mindless
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The plot of this live-action adaptation of the simplistic animated classic about the famous talking bear on the hunt for picnic baskets in Jellystone Park certainly feels like an episode of the show. But there’s an infantile mindlessness at the heart of this CGI-based misadventure that makes 'SpongeBob SquarePants' look downright 'Inception'-esque. Grade: D.
Little Fockers (Review)
Third entry in the comedy series is a rote, unfunny exercise
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Rather than devoting time to tracking what could have been the comic evolution of the relationship between male nurse Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and his former CIA agent father-in-law Frank (Robert De Niro), director Paul Weitz seemingly ended up dangling money before his performers to get them to react on cue in this rote, terribly unfunny exercise. Grade: D-.
