Undefeated chronicles the 2009 season of the Manassas Tigers, a high school football team in North Memphis – also known as the perennial whipping boys for the rest of the state. Facing a fourteen-year losing streak, the team is taken over Bill Courtney, a volunteer head coach / lumber salesman in his quest to lead them to […]
Mar07
Welcome to Nowhere (Bullet Hole Road) — A Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Road Movie
Characteristically, the road movie is a catharsis played out on the big screen. Mounting frustrations of quotidian, pedestrian existences crescendo into a need to break away from all that is familiar. At the same time, the road movie is a contradiction as characters escape the familiar by utilizing the uber-familiar and search for the unknown by means […]
Beginning in 2008, frugality became the new luxury. The bling that was in a few years prior became excessive and the winnowing of credit card debt became the fashion of the moment. People began going green less out of compassion for the environment, and more of a means to limit their electric and gas bills. As we […]
February had a moment, like Chronicle and Undefeated, but most of it fell flat. March is the month were things start to get a bit better, a bit more bigger budget, and a few more stars. This first week, we get a look at a dissipating rocker, a non-sparkly Robert Pattinson, a liberal-agenda cartoon character and Robert […]
In a number of portrayals of women passing as men, gender-bending is a method of establishing an identity. In Albert Nobbs, the diminutive, soft-spoken, ginger-haired Irish hotel butler (Glenn Close) becomes a man, in part to escape the brutality of men in a previous relationship, but more for anonymity. Albert makes few social statements through her disguise; rather, […]
It’s believed that thousands of people live below the streets of New York City, inhabiting the shoulders and gullies of the labyrinthine subway. Those pounding the pavement to and from work each day may wonder what impels these denizens to navigate dark, dirty tunnels in lieu of facing the myriad bodies and bills that await them above. […]
Real-life Navy SEALs, Tyler Perry pretending to be profound, but really just taking your money, the President’s daughter in a space prison, the enigma that is Amanda Seyfried persists, and the conundrum of seeing a Jennifer Aniston movie. Welcome to the weekend! Act of Valor: If nothing else, this film could be a surprise study in realism. […]
The Artist is charming, heart-warming, and fun, but I’m still uncertain why it’s destined to win the top prize at this year’s Academy Awards. To be fair, I accept that Best Picture rarely means “the best picture,” but I’m still confused about the source of all this hype. Michel Hazinavicius’ film is cute. It truly is, and […]
Being, seemingly, one of only two people across the globe who disliked Steig Larsson’s trilogy, I didn’t flock to see David Fincher’s screen adaptation. In part, there are certain plot points in the novel that just drive me a bit nuts, particularly the incredible progression of Blumquist’s discovery of a woman whose honeymoon fortuitously took place during […]
Ned lives contently with Willie Nelson (his dog) and girlfriend, Liz, somewhere in upstate New York. The vibe is reminiscent of hippiedom, or at least re-imagined hippiedom. Liz and Ned are idealists, which intones that they’re pacifists, and they often cite modes of non-violence when bickering. They work an organic farm, wear Crocks instead of Birkenstocks and […]