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With the campy, violent, tongue-in-cheek pulp western Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino comes at us full-tilt, both guns appropriately blazing. Hollywood’s most idiosyncratic working director seems intent on one-upping himself, doing to America’s shameful history with slavery what he did for Nazis in Inglorious Basterds, and then some. Be prepared to squirm in your seat. Tarantino name-checks … Continue reading
There’s half of a good movie scattered throughout Jack Reacher; unfortunately, it’s overwhelmed by the half that’s not so great. Produced with the intent to kick-start a franchise, it’s so workmanlike and dull that it’s likely to amount to little more than a one-off. That dullness is particularly off-putting, considering it is written and directed … Continue reading
With 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, writer-director Judd Apatow gave a white bread Middle America a voice with which to shout its meager frustrations while simultaneously deflating them. Unfortunately This is 40, his paean to the onset of middle age, lacks the wit, energy, and goofball insight to do more than whimper. Touted as a sequel … Continue reading
When The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring arrived in theaters in 2001 (has it really been that long?) it marked a watershed moment in film: It was the first big-budget live action fantasy movie of its kind, steeped in high production values, a fanboy’s attention to detail, and bleeding edge special … Continue reading
With an intriguing concept firmly in place, Hyde Park on Hudson nevertheless stumbles out of the gate and, like last year’s The Iron Lady, collapses into another instance of a fine cast in need of a better movie. Hyde Park juggles — and lamely attempts to intertwine — two parallel story lines: The main one … Continue reading
More of a portrait of the sometimes strained marriage and creative partnership of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma Reville than an in-depth exploration of the psyche of The Master of Suspense, Hitchcock walks the fine line between the man and the myth. It also gives meaty roles to its lead actors, Anthony … Continue reading
Visually lush but otherwise over-thought and overwrought, Joe Wright’s misguided adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s epic tragedy sucks the life out of a classic staple of literature and film. Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) stumbles from the moment the curtain literally raises by presenting the story as if it were a stage play inside a film, … Continue reading
With Life of Pi, Ang Lee turns in his most engaging and confidently made feature since Brokeback Mountain (2005), and perhaps his most visually resplendent one ever. With fully realized characters inhabiting a carefully structured story embellished with stunning — but not overwhelming — visual effects, it’s part elemental survival epic, part coming-of-age fable, and part … Continue reading
Documentary filmmaker Yaron Zilberman (Watermarks) leaves an indelibly touching impression with his feature film debut, writing and directing a simple tale of a world-renowned string quartet on the verge of being torn apart by its complicated internal relationships. That it touches the line between drama and soap operatics without pole-vaulting over it is due largely … Continue reading
After 22 movies spread across 50 years, it seems almost counterintuitive that the 007 franchise could offer little more beyond its time-tested “kiss kiss, bang bang” formula; however, with Skyfall we’re given what is arguably the best Bond movie to date, as well as the most significant one since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It … Continue reading
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