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 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 I loved almost every second of Goon, the broad, dirty comedy about a Massachusetts bar bouncer who becomes the star enforcer in a Canadian hockey league. Playing stupid, loyal and truly good, Seann William Scott has never been better; while he’s usually very funny, he’s never been as deeply sympathetic or…
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…
dvd of the week Meryl Streep finally won her third Oscar for her brilliant portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Some people thought she was great and the movie wasn’t, but I loved the whole thing. Told in flashbacks from the perspective of an elderly Thatcher heading into the dementia from which the…
dvd of the week Alexander Payne won another Oscar for his screenplay to this low-key dramedy about a man dealing with finding out that his comatose wife cheated on him, their problematic children, and a large family squabble about what to do with a huge track of Hawaiian land they inherited. George Clooney is more…
dvd of the week Like Crazy is a naturalistic romance about two young people in love who behave like young people in love. There’s nothing crazy about them or the movie. That it’s still so successful, so entertaining and moving, despite being so honest and realistic, is a testament to the skills of director Drake…
dvd of the week On my favorite movies list of 2011, Moneyball manages to make baseball statistics dramatic and funny. Bennett Miller’s crafty use of slow motion, muted colors and slyly gorgeous cinematography creates an epic grandeur for what is really a story of office politics. He and the screenwriters use American audiences’ sentimentality about…
