The Intouchables In my humble opinion, The Intouchables is the best movie I have seen this year. Granted, the high-brow movies that are expected to win awards don’t usually arrive in theaters until September, so the competition hasn’t been fierce. However, I’m pretty sure that come December, I will still love The Intouchables, and I…
By the time you read this, the actual movie called The Dark Knight Rises will have been completely eclipsed in the popular imagination by the shooting at a July 20 midnight screening of the movie in Aurora, Colo., in which 12 people were killed and 58 wounded. James Holmes, the 24-year-old man who (allegedly) committed…
While most of you will probably be spending Pride weekend watching the parade, buying overpriced food at the festival, and/or sipping mimosas at queer brunches, some of you may want to be proud in the comfort of your own home. Or you may want to continue Pride after the weekend on your couch, nursing a…
At the moment, very few cinemas are showing movies that aren’t loud, computer-generated products for the teen masses. Usually, summer tends to be dominated by movies like The Avengers and Brave and Ted. The small art houses do their best to counter-program with nerdy crowd-pleasing indies; this is why Wes Anderson’s wonderful Moonrise Kingdom is…
When I told a couple of friends that I was taking my boyfriend to see Channing Tatum dance in a strip club in Magic Mike, there was an exultant, “Oh, that looks sooo bad!” They had the so-bad-it’s-good bloodlust; they were hoping for Showgirls crossed with Coyote Ugly, crossed with Staying Alive. “It’s a Steven…
A great deal has been 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…
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World When I’m under the weather – when I’m home with a cold or just filled with ennui – I like to watch romantic comedies. However, there are a few things I can’t take in a romantic comedy. Don’t bring me down. I don’t want disease, death…
Rock of Ages In the first few minutes of 1980s-set pop-rock musical Rock of Ages, Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) climbs onto a bus to Los Angeles, flips through her collection of power pop rock albums, rereads a good luck note from her grandmother, sighs hopefully and starts singing – along with the entire bus –…
Sam Shakusky, the hero of Moonrise Kingdom, is an awkward 12-year-old boy. An orphan living in a foster home for troubled boys in 1965, he is the only one who doesn’t look like an extra in Rebel Without A Cause. Tough guys, the other boys are all in white T-shirts and blue jeans and their…
also playing What a great idea: Remake Snow White, but throw out everything that made the Disney film work – the sweetness, the cuteness, and brilliant Technicolor – and replace it with everything that made The Lord of the Rings work: stunning cinematography, intense acting, special effects monsters and special effects little people, swordplay, and…
