This is the second year in a row that I have been lucky enough to see what amounts to a “lost” film. Last year it was the spectacular Army of Shadows and this year it’s the equally impressive Killer of Sheep. While Shadows was the result of a great director reaching the pinnacle of his … Continue reading
I was incredibly surprised by how well TMNT, Warner Bros’ attempt to restart the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, works. The movie has no right being as good as it is, although some of that reaction could come from diminished expectations. Still, TMNT works effectively as a continuation of the original comics/cartoons/movies as well as … Continue reading
Walking out of The Last Mimzy I felt indescribably sad. It took me a second to figure out why – after all, the movie didn’t end on a sad note, and even if it did, the film is so incapable of eliciting any emotional response beyond annoyance that I couldn’t imagine it would make me … Continue reading
Billy Wilder once said that a love story isn’t about what gets a couple together, but what keeps them apart. Knocked Up takes the opposite route with its main couple, as Judd Apatow and his crew spend the film’s running time not finding ways to keep Seth Rogen and Katharine Heigl apart but rather reasons … Continue reading
I have seen 300 twice now, and the second viewing was crucial. Not because it was on an Imax screen – a very impressive way to watch the film – but because I came into the theater without the kind of expectations I had my first time through. I knew that 300 wasn’t as crazy … Continue reading
Buy it!: Click Here Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pages: 368 Author Website: Click Here If you think plot is the most important thing in a novel, leave now. This book is not for you. For those of you that enjoy movies like The Royal Tenenbaums or T.V. shows like Gilmore Girls or the Rockford Files, … Continue reading
[Note: The Exterminating Angels is set for a limited theatrical release starting March 7. IFC Films’ website has the full schedule of release.] When I start watching a movie for review, I fire up my word processor alongside so I can snatch bits of thoughts that drift past while the action unfolds on the screen. … Continue reading
Zodiac is journalism. Zodiac is a David Fincher movie unlike any other David Fincher movie. Zodiac feels a lot like a masterpiece. David Fincher’s feature career, with the exception of the disastrous Alien 3, is filled with gimmick films. He uses visual gimmicks, and he often uses storytelling gimmicks. As individual experiences, these gimmick movies … Continue reading
[Note: Wild Tigers I Have Known is set for a limited theatrical release starting February 23. IFC’s website has full release information.] This is the sort of film that draws memories out of its audience. In a critical landscape in which unquantifiable things, such as what experiences a given viewer brings to the theater, can’t … Continue reading
The people responsible for the new Jim Carrey movie The Number 23 could have saved a lot of time and money and, instead of actually filming the movie, simply printed out cards that could be handed to paying customers at movie theaters across the nation. The cards would say, ‘You have a small penis,’ or … Continue reading