Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Those waiting for that break-up prohibition to expire can now submit as many pink slips as you wish. And, if you’re looking to drown your sorrows or start life anew, your best best this week will be to check out Undefeated. If you’re just looking to get depressed, you might want to […]
If 2011 was the year of the sequel, 2012 is set to rival that moniker with additional superhero franchise installments. Most notably is the uber-anticipated Dark Knight Rises, followed at a distance by The Amazing Spiderman and The Avengers. I’m sure Hollywood is also destined to bombard us with a handful of underground super movies that follow […]
…in the forest and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound? This century-old philosophical thought experiment is often conducted to explore the connection between our realities and observations. However, If a Tree Falls, the newly Academy Award nominated documentary, contends, the answer to this question is: “No, which is why the aggravated […]
Andrew Detmer (Dane Dehaan) is a high school-assassin waiting to happen. Despite his often stoic demeanor, an anger ebbs and flows underneath, occasionally manifesting itself in a frustrated outburst. If it’s possible, his aggression is justified: his alcoholic father (Michael Kelly) is verbally and physically abusive, occasionally jabbing Andrew’s temple with a quick right hand, knocking him out of […]
Tales of police corruption in cinema are a dime a dozen. Some are akin to Serpico. Others are like Brooklyn’s Finest. Then there’s The Guard, which resembles neither, but has been drastically overlooked in 2011. Don Cheadle and Brendan Gleeson star in this Irish comedy that follows unorthodox policeman Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) as he investigates a few […]
Last week’s Big Miracle flopped like a humpback in pudding, but this week, we’re all gearing up for Valentine’s Day. For those of you looking for dinner and a movie, you’ve got your pick between Rachel McAdams, Reese Witherspoon, or animation. (I’m banking on the animation.) Looking for a bit of action, but you’re single, Safe House […]
A Separation begins and ends in a similar way: a seemingly insurmountable, superficially minute amount of space in the labyrinthine corridors of the Iranian judicial system. To begin Simin and Nader plead their case to an off-screen interrogator (Babak Karimi) who sits precisely at the camera’s lens. He is seen throughout the rest of the movie – […]
Similar to last year’s Restrepo, this year’s Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary, Hell and Back Again, looks at the trials and tribulation within the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan, centering, for the most part, on the rhetoric of our politicking. Various commanders sit down with Afghan elders and explain that “we’ll pay for [the damage we’ve created],” […]
I suppose the above graphic would have been a better inclusion when discussing One for the Money last week. (It’s currently coasting at a steady 3% on Rottentomatoes, which, admittedly, isn’t as bad as Bucky Larson, but certainly just as good as Abduction.) As February begins, we are greeted by a sentimental fight against the Soviets — sort of […]
Making a movie about survival is tricky insomuch as, generally speaking, the writer, director, and cast have little frame of reference from which to draw the logical course of action for dealing with a pack of hungry wolves in the Alaskan wilderness. Perhaps our repeat viewings of Man vs. Wild suggest a rudimentary knowledge for survival, but […]