This was a truly “independent” film, in which none of the usual movie rules applied. For long stretches it was so “real” that it seemed lifeless. Except for Michelle Williams, recognizable even clothed head to foot, no effort was made to explain, or particularly distinguish, any of the characters. The Indian looked like someone from Milwaukee who […]
I don’t know what all the fuss, all the critical commentary and browbeating, is about. This was nothing but a typical Judd Apatow gross-out comedy, albeit with women instead of men providing the humor, frequently lewd. Granted, the lovable loser role, instead of being played by a schlumpy Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill, was given […]
A Werner Herzogian quest for the unusual and the unknowable, placing us inside a French cave with wall paintings from 32,000 years ago. Herzog’s dialogue is wonderfully breathless and the score is lusciously mystical, taking us out of the realms of archaeology and other science into the greater mysteries of human existence. Above all, one […]
A supremely silly, or supremely stylized – depending upon your tolerance for Francois Ozon – family comedy in which the characters say exactly what they are thinking, sans nuance or consideration, and no one gets too upset. Come to think of it, that’s a good definition of a sitcom, too. Here, the main attraction is […]
An action-packed chase movie, very much a la mode of Bourne Ultimatum, with Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett in the Matt Damon and Joan Allen roles, respectively. The pseudo sci-fi premise, too, is similar – oh, those CIA experiments gone awry! – and the endings equally inconclusive, leaving patrons in the men’s room speculating about […]
The very height of Romantic melodrama, portrayed flawlessly by Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Cary Fukunaga’s mise-en-scene borrows liberally from Vermeer and De la Tour, matching the spareness and directness of the love story: one girl, one man – and oh, a crazy lady up in the attic. Nobody does Masterpiece Classics like the British, […]
A thoroughly genial chase film about a foul-mouthed alien, a sort-of bastard child ofE.T. and Borat. All the acting, or should I say mugging, was pitch-perfect, not only by the refreshingly unfamiliar British leads, but also by the reliable American supporting cast, such as Kristin Wiig, Bill Hader and Justin Bateman. This was not a […]
There were enough clues that hung together well enough to keep the mind engaged, and the movie’s subtext – how the justice system is often corrupt and inefficient – is one I could certainly live with. In the end, though, how much more was here than in a good Law and Order episode? Much depended […]
A hauntingly beautiful story of French monks in remote Algeria during a time of civil war, but what impressed me most was the respect it gave and intelligence it ascribed to its viewers. Quotidian events were presented on a par with liturgical, and when crisis came, it was realistic, not overwrought. Whether the monks were […]
The ridiculous – no, silly – plot concept, that an “adustment bureau” monitors and controls human fates – by opening doors to a different dimension but having to run on foot to catch a bus – is not saved by a central romance between the normally likeable but here personality-free Matt Damon, who seems to […]
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