As numerous news outlets have shown us over the past week, James Holmes entered a Colorado theater during the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. He then allegedly opened fire, killing twelve people and wounding many others. The twenty-four-year old Holmes recently appeared in court for a preliminary hearing in which his hair was dyed a fading […]
Christopher Nolan has delivered in his final installment to the Dark Knight trilogy, and he does it with a solid, reflective narrative that – for the most part – avoids the faux philosophy that riddles The Dark Knight. As to prevent spoilers from creeping into this analysis, I’ll focus on the narrative’s arc that fittingly echoes moments […]
I’ll assume other movies are opening this weekend, but none of them will be watched. We should probably also mourn the fates of any film opening in the next three weeks as well, which means The Watch and Killer Joe are probably destined to small-screen releases for quite a while. The Dark Knight Rises opens this weekend, […]
Despite Alex Pettyfer’s presence as Adam, Magic Mike is not about the beginning of a male stripper who is down on his luck and just plain lazy. I’m not even sure it’s really about being a male stripper – much like Boogie Nights isn’t just about being a porn star. While Paul Thomas Anderson’s film is better […]
The Imposter does not bait the audience with a mystery as to whether or not the man in the trailer is actually Nicholas Barclay, a thirteen-year-old boy who disappeared from San Antonio, Texas in 1994 and then somehow turned up in Spain three years later. The preview would have you believe this mystery is the premise for […]
As we count down the weeks until The Dark Knight Rises and get our superhero fix through webslinging teenagers, we might as well embrace a documentary about a potential interloper, Robert DeNiro’s turn as a world famous psychic bound to be kin to the devil, the fourth installment of a mediocre animated franchise, and Martin Scorsese’s presentation of […]
The incisor that slowly falls from the hockey player’s mouth, just after his blood forms Pollack-like droplets on the ice, casts Goon as a film that celebrates controlled violence. Puccini’s “Diecimile anni al nostro Imperatore” accompanies this scene, as do cheers from the crowd and smiles on the face of the enforcer who protected his team’s marquee […]
The Rum Diary is a movie full of missed moments, seemingly at times of ranting to its audience. At the same time, this film falls prey to the same devices that sunk Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In both films, Depp channels the journalist alter egos of Thompson, but in The Rum Diary, the poignancy […]
Spiderman will clearly be the biggest draw this weekend unless you are part of the millions of Katy Perry fans who have never been able to afford to see her live. In that case, you can watch her story unfold before your very eyes. Or, you could check out Oliver Stone’s most recent film in which he explores […]
In one sense, 21 Jump Street is retelling of The Prince and the Pauper wherein economic disparities are replaced by the gulf between the socially admired and the socially anemic. Truthfully, I was expecting little from the large-screen adaptation of the 1980’s television series about undercover police officers who infiltrate reprobate-filled highschools. However, this film is less longer […]