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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
From the beginning of Ted, writer / director Seth MacFarlane blends fairy tale and nostalgia into one film. MacFarlane-as-baritone narrator indicts the people of world for no longer believing that wishes come true. As if channeling the virtues of Jiminy Cricket, the narrator brings us into a wintery landscaped-Massachusetts, on Christmas Eve, “that time of year when […]
Ostensibly, everything on the fictional island of New Penzance is out of a Normal Rockwell painting. The colors are clean, the children are adorned with suspenders, crisp hems, and Sunday school shoes, and everything has its place. Such is the life imagined in Wes Anderson’s new film Moonrise Kingdom. This film shares a number of character elements […]
The King’s Speech is well acted, (characteristically by Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth, who won the Oscar he should have won for A Single Man) and decently directed by Tom Hooper, though I still feel David Fincher and Christopher Nolan were ignored for their work in The Social Network and Inception, respectively. Overall, the film is touching […]
Perhaps my low-to-no expectations influenced what I’m about to write here. Or, perhaps Cameron Crowe’s characteristically solid soundtrack brought me to a nostalgic familiar place. Regardless, We Bought a Zoo was pretty good. I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a surprise to see those words transfer from my brain to the page, but it’s true: […]