Another cuddly Greta Herwig vehicle – does she ever play other than the lovable not-quite-loser but not exactly Julia Roberts? There are a bundle of pleasantly smile-inducing moments, especially early on before a plot takes over, including a marvelous cameo for Wallace Shawn. Ethan Hawke is convincing as a charmer whose narcissism is overlooked but […]
There can never be too many movies about misfit high schoolers who form a rock band to get the girl of their dreams (although the Swedish We’re the Best was the exception proving the rule). This one from Ireland was a bit of a stretch, although the impossibly good music the tyro band produced was pleasanter […]
A very sweet movie about a young Cuban caught between his macho, ex-con father and his aspirations as a drag queen. There are plenty of cliches and moments of predictable melodrama, but the setting – the slums of Havana – is realistic enough that you forgive some predictabilities in this, surprisingly, Irish-made film. Most of […]
This movie’s view of college life makes Animal House seem realistic. Unfortunately, where Animal House is hilarious, Everybody is just obnoxious. In the 40 minutes we watched before walking out, there wasn’t a single enjoyable, let alone amusing, moment, no one I cared about, or anything resembling a plot. The characters’ personality traits were among my least favorite. […]
Despite having no knowledge of, experience with or particular interest in the subject of in-vitro fertilization, I was hooked from the start of this documentary, and it never let go. Director Amanda Micheli skillfully mixed science, human interest, joy, sadness, ethics and economics, with just the right touches of humor for leavening to tell a […]
Kudos to director Gavin Hood, producer Colin Firth, et al., for making a commercial film that presents and provokes debate on a controversial public policy issue: America’s drone war on terrorists in the Third World. Both sides are vividly presented. Pro: a drone strike will eliminate three identified terrorist leaders and two jihadi mules armed […]
It’s rather gutsy to make a romantic comedy about the war in Afghanistan – what with all those people dying, not to mention the overlying issue of what our army is doing there in the first place – but Tina Fey handled that challenge admirably. What she didn’t do was convince anyone she was a […]
John Goodman is never uninteresting, and his turn as a survivalist looney was suitably convincing – and well matched against Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s hostage. Maybe there was nothing terribly important or riveting at stake, but the players kept me engaged. When actual stakes were revealed at the end, a new light was cast on all […]
Long, boring and if there was a point, I missed it. Heart of Darkness meets Ramar of the Jungle is not a winning recipe, especially when the white-man leads are unattractive and delusional. The natives were more noble but not noticeably attached to any universe I recognized. At least I learned that the Amazon, or at […]
Points for style and technique, as the whole film is shot in claustrophobic, hand-held close-focus, always looking at or through the eyes of the mesmeric, or mesmerized, Saul. When a truck is on the road and we see green trees pass by, the color takes us aback. What was missing, for me, was any empathy […]
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