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A smarter spoof than Austin Powers, and free of the over-seriousness the Bond movies, Kingsman: The Secret Service is a much-needed fresh take on spy fiction, one that pays homage to the genre almost as often as it rips it off, subverts it, and then gives it the finger. The movie finds writer-director Matthew Vaughn once again … Continue reading
It’s been a while since Tim Burton has offered up a movie that wasn’t A.) drenched in weirdness-as-affectation, B.) smothered in heavy-handed effects, C.) beaten into delirium with gratuitous Johnny Depp, or D.) all of the above. With Big Eyes, however, he seems ready to throw aside his stylistic crutches and tell a simple story. However, even with much of … Continue reading
Inherent Vice is the first movie based on a novel by Thomas Pynchon. Whether or not there will be another any time soon is anyone’s guess. Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation (approved by Pynchon himself) is a rambling and largely incoherent tale. It’s supposed to be; its source was a rambling, convoluted soft-boiled detective tale, and Anderson’s … Continue reading
A messy but intriguing and enjoyably warped slice of modern film noir as only Los Angeles can flavor it, Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler isn’t quite the searing indictment of the “if it bleeds, it leads” TV news ethos, but it is one hell of a character study of a video journalist as high-functioning sociopath. That’s largely … Continue reading
A bizarre hybrid of a midlife crisis comedy and a backstage drama, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) is the kind of philosophical and challenging film the director is known surprisingly pitched with a playfulness that he’s never used before. The material isn’t as morose as Amores Perros or 21 Grams or … Continue reading
A sporadically clever zombie-themed romantic comedy, Life After Beth makes a valiant effort to shake up the zombie movie genre in terms of tone and content, but it arrives late to the party in terms of both. it’s a nice change of pace, the story is quirky, and the players are endearing, but it’s too thin … Continue reading
Let’s just get this out of the way first: The One I Love is a great movie to watch, but an almost impossible one to review — not because it is impenetrable or has the kind of built-in audience that doesn’t give a dingo’s kidney about critics’ opinions (it’s neither of those, by the way), … Continue reading
It’s a rare sequel — animated or otherwise — that expands the story of its predecessor without rehashing it, and an even rarer family-oriented film that manages to be fun and mature without being condescending to its audience. How to Train Your Dragon 2 does both. Set five years after the first movie, a clunky prologue … Continue reading
He’s his own worst enemy and the kind of guy you love and hate in equal measure, a man you want to smack some bloody sense into but don’t because it’s likely a body part or two will get ripped off by him; and in Jude Law’s capable hands, Dom Hemingway is a lunatic bastard with the … Continue reading
For years now the whimsical movie stylings of Wes Anderson have regularly been dismissed as something of an acquired taste, as rambling, self-indulgent musings drenched in artifice and contrivance. Granted, there’s a lot of truth to that, but to dismiss them outright is to throw the proverbial baby out with the equally proverbial bath water. … Continue reading
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