Reviews

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 08 April 2011 13:01

Seems composed of dialogue and scenes written and then discarded by writers working on better films.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 08 April 2011 12:35

This is a sort of high-level fudging that buys the production more than a few breaks because it leaves you uncertain about whether what you’re seeing is deep or shallow.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 08 April 2011 12:29

Like Secret Sunshine, the plot never goes where you expect it to, which I mean as a complement of the highest order.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 01 April 2011 07:11

Source Code holds its own and doesn’t rip things off so much as uses ideas as fertilizer in its garden.

| Print |

Written by Adrienne Jones Friday, 01 April 2011 07:05

Well, of course you can take your kids to see Hop—as long as they don't expect big laughs, and as long as you don't expect good acting or a vibrant, coherent story.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Thursday, 31 March 2011 22:16

Both are kind of bitchy, mincing, and passive-aggressively unpleasant, and they do not make good company for the film’s 106-minute running time.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 31 March 2011 22:13

Despite being on a first-name basis with many of the stars of the fashion world (Anna Wintour famously remarked that "we all dress for Bill"), Cunningham retains his independence.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 25 March 2011 07:57

Character motivation here isn’t exactly a priority anyway; being able to tell the girls apart by sight is really all you need.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 25 March 2011 00:19

I Saw the Devil is pretty and slick, as are all of Jee-woon’s films, and the sheen distracts in a bad way from the carnage.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 25 March 2011 00:15

The result is an entertaining send-up of two staples of commercial American movies: school romances and teen horror flicks.

| Print |

Written by Adrienne Jones Friday, 18 March 2011 08:31

I must commend McConaughey on stepping away from the romantic comedies. He's definitely a major reason this film works so well.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 18 March 2011 08:20

So here we have a buddy road trip comedy that is intermingled with a spoof of alien movies.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Wednesday, 16 March 2011 10:09

This is a quiet film full of quirky details, and a worthy addition to the noir comedy genre.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 11 March 2011 12:14

If you're the kind of person for whom "they blowed it up real good" is a positive review, you'll love this film.

| Print |

Written by Adrienne Jones Friday, 11 March 2011 12:00

They even managed to work in the line, "Grandma, what big eyes you have," which drew actual, cartoonish, laugh-track-style guffaws from the front row.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 10 March 2011 11:05

Daniel provides the radical voice of the indigenous peoples and as such proves to be trouble on the film set as well as in the streets.

| Print |

Written by Matthew F. Newlin Friday, 04 March 2011 20:57

Instead of memories determining who we are, Nolfi dissects (or at least attempts to dissect) how our predetermined path makes us who we are.

| Print |

Written by Matthew F. Newlin Friday, 04 March 2011 20:45

Here, Depp’s voice is the only tool he can use in his performance. Without fail, he does so expertly and creates a character so vivid and lifelike that it’s easy to forget he isn’t real.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 03 March 2011 16:56

Take Me Home Tonight is a sort of follow-up to the TV series That '70s Show that offers the chance to live vicariously in the fantasy 1980s for roughly an hour and a half.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 03 March 2011 16:17

What really sells this film is style, and in that regard it is a worthy entry in what might be called the “brooding horror” genre perfected by Val Lewton.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 25 February 2011 12:35

If, like me, you find zoos creepy to begin with, you may find this film seriously disturbing in a Twilight Zone sort of way, which ultimately is a testimony to its power.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Friday, 18 February 2011 00:59

To these characters nothing is grosser than any hint of gayness, except possibly any hint of female sexuality, and it’s too bad that the jokes aimed at the audience are on the same developmental level.

| Print |

Written by Adrienne Jones Friday, 18 February 2011 00:52

Just once, I wish the person who realizes that they have massive amounts of untapped power and must save us all from malevolence would be a 52-year-old.

| Print |

Written by Matthew F. Newlin Friday, 18 February 2011 00:45

Unknown, which tries desperately to fit into that canon of intelligent and thought-provoking films, fails on so many levels that the entire structure of the movie collapses under the weight of its own absurdity.

| Print |

Written by Matthew F. Newlin Saturday, 12 February 2011 12:16

The animation team deserves the film’s only praise, for the beautiful world they have created and the painstaking attention to detail given to each and every character.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 10 February 2011 13:16

Dreamscape Charity is definitely not interested in fulfilling the wish of cancer patient David (Samuel Peter Holland) who, with only a few months to live, desires most of all to lose his virginity.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 10 February 2011 13:02

The difference is that instead of telling you how to survive a nuclear war (duck and cover!) or avoid predatory homosexuals (beware of older man lurking about the changing rooms at the beach), it dispenses advice about how to be a better polluter.

| Print |

Written by Alice Telios Thursday, 10 February 2011 12:51

In Richard J. Lewis’ take on Mordecai Richler's novel, Barney’s Version, a young-at-heart cast heroically embraces aging on the big screen.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 04 February 2011 21:20

Bobby’s arc is the film’s arc, though he’s not the only one who winds up going through a dispiriting round of layoffs, which in a lot of ways is exactly the point.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Thursday, 03 February 2011 15:01

Amores Perros and 21 Grams are stronger films than Biutiful, but it’s reassuring to see that Iñárritu still has it when I had forgotten that he ever had it in the first place.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 03 February 2011 14:47

Many films have been written about the bonds between man and beast but few are as wise, as witty, or as unflinchingly founded in observation as My Dog Tulip.

| Print |

Written by Matthew F. Newlin Friday, 28 January 2011 07:45

Screenwriter Michael Petroni has crafted a very entertaining, if somewhat derivative, twist on the genre that makes for a decent movie.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Thursday, 27 January 2011 13:05

I said earlier that her films don’t often find a critical consensus, but White Material kind of has: everyone but me.

| Print |

Written by Sarah Boslaugh Thursday, 27 January 2011 12:50

The best reason to see The Illusionist is the art, which is a perfect match to the film’s mood.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Friday, 21 January 2011 00:00

Good copy wants me to say that No Strings Attached is Natalie’s worst-ever movie, but that just wouldn’t be true; she made Where the Heart Is.

| Print |

Written by Pete Timmermann Thursday, 20 January 2011 16:39

I liked Hosoda’s last film, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Summer Wars fulfills the potential that Girl showed.