No one could hope that Rises could ever be as good as The Dark Knight, which is inarguably the best superhero movie ever made. The main problem with Rises is that director Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan forced the Rises screenplay to tie up the plot threads of The Dark Knight and Batman Begins…
John Hawkes’s performance in The Sessions is being described as reminiscent of Daniel Day-Lewis’ Christy Brown in the classic 1989 film My Left Foot. Playing the Irish writer who was born with cerebral palsy that prevented him from using any body part but his left foot, Day-Lewis won an Oscar (as did Brenda Fricker playing…
A great deal was made out of the fact that Brave is the first Pixar movie with a female protagonist. Since Disney has had female protagonists from the beginning – Snow White was released in 1939 – Pixar isn’t exactly breaking new ground. If anything, Brave is the first major American animated film with a…
Whoever was behind the marketing for Magic Mike decided that they were not even going to mention the great, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, let alone promote him; they were going to hide the fact that the movie is actually really, really good. They were going to focus the ads on a shirtless, occasionally pants-less Channing…
dvd of the week In Wes Anderson’s incredibly arch Moonrise Kingdom, dorky and awkward Sam (Jared Gilman) runs away from his Khaki Scout summer camp to go on an adventure with a girl named Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward). She is as off as Sam, but while Sam is nerdy and odd, Suzy is angry and…
dvd of the week What a great idea: Remake Snow White, but throw out everything that made the Disney film work and replace it with everything that made The Lord of the Rings work. And it is, actually, a great idea. In this film, the huntsman who is charged with capturing Snow White has a…
dvd of the week I was surprised that the original film was written by Joel Schumacher, who went on to gayify Batman and direct St. Elmo’s Fire and The Client. But I was more surprised by Irene Cara in the title role. She’s so young, so vulnerable, and her singing is as soulful as Jordin…
dvd of the week Nick Flynn’s memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City is a lyrical and harrowing tale of alcoholism, homelessness, redemption, and the artist’s life; and there’s probably no way that it could have survived the trip to the screen without losing some of its charm. Being Flynn, Paul Weitz’s sturdy and moving…
dvd of the week When you cast someone whose last name is Kitsch in a bound-to-be-cheesy sci-fi action film, you’re begging for a review that says that the movie is “kitschy.” And that would be a perfect description of John Carter, which stars Taylor Kitsch: The film is “a worthless imitation of art of recognized…
dvd of the week That Focus Features, the distribution company that puts out such highbrow star-vehicles like Brokeback Mountain and Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, would get behind a gritty first feature with virtually unknown actors and a lengthy scene about a strap-on dildo is testament to how affecting Pariah is. Alike (Adepero Oduye), the teenage…
