“Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream.” –Hugh Hefner Getting used to Funny Story took a while for me. To start with, this film takes place in a hospital mental ward that’s seemingly run by the patients. Doctors, nurses and orderlies are extremely scarce and security is appallingly lax. We’re told that … Continue reading
Much as it pains me to admit, Let Me In was pretty much doomed to failure of some kind from the start. First, there was all of the pessimism and doubt about upstart filmmaker Matt Reeves trying to craft an American remake of a foreign film hailed as a masterpiece. The casting announcements and advance … Continue reading
This is the trailer for Catfish. Note that it uses some pretty creepy music in the back half, with reviews that praise its thrilling nature, particularly the ending. Here is the poster for the same movie. Note the horrific black-on-red color scheme, with that enigmatic tagline: “Don’t tell anyone what it is.” Indeed, most reviews … Continue reading
I was looking forward to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, especially after seeing its prequel. The original Wall Street didn’t exactly blow my socks off, but I appreciated the great acting and the straightforward narrative wrapped in commentary about 1980s economics. Oliver Stone clearly had a lot to say about insider trading and financial maneuverings … Continue reading
I love Shakespeare’s work. Who doesn’t? His use of the English language remains unparalleled so many centuries later and his stories continue to stir the imagination to this day. The tragic King Lear, the corrupt Macbeth, the mad Hamlet and even those young fools Romeo and Juliet are all dear to me, though I much … Continue reading
If I had to summarize Get Low in two words, they’d probably be “Memento mori.” The entire film is a meditation on death and all that it entails, such as inevitability, uncertainty and repentance. If you’re old, you can add to the list obsolescence, loneliness and a general feeling of misplacement in a rapidly changing … Continue reading
I admit that I’ve been seeing movies in a very different way since I started blogging. It used to be that I would simply watch a movie and try to enjoy myself. Now, I actively search for nits to pick in the movie I’m watching. I’m constantly looking for deficiencies, cataloging them in my head … Continue reading
…but the adults are screwed up. The Kids Are All Right is a decidedly small movie. It’s one of those slice-of-life films that try to emulate real life, with characters and scenarios that could easily be going on right now in any suburb, yet the characters are so well-written and superbly acted that spending time … Continue reading
Love him or hate him (and there are many who hate him), there’s no denying that Zack Snyder’s got balls. He broke into the mainstream by remaking one of history’s definitive zombie movies. He followed that up by adapting a slim graphic novel that was borderline self-parody in its depiction of Thermopylae. And then, of … Continue reading
The Town is a frustrating film to me, but not because it’s a bad movie. Far from it. The movie is very good in point of fact, it’s just that there are so many little ways that it could have been so much better. But first, the positive. This movie is visually stunning. In heists … Continue reading