I barely noticed Jennifer Chastain in Tree of Life and scarcely recognized her in The Help, but by the time I caught on to her in Take Shelter I was blown away by her acting skills, by the empathy she communicated. Michael Shannon’s may be the more bravura performance – I have no idea how […]
This is, I suspect, as good a movie as we will get about the financial meltdown of 2008. While not an accurate picture of any one company or situation, there seem to be real-life precedents for almost everything in the film, starting with the basic dilemma: do I have any moral obligation not to sell […]
A most pleasant walk, with beautiful scenery and some interesting characters, especially (for me) Joni Mitchell-lookalike Deborah Kara Unger. Martin Sheen is always good company, too, and the searching for his son in a movie directed by his real-life son Emilio Estevez added poignancy. While there were a number of unlikely melodramatic incidents to keep […]
As a birder, I felt compelled to watch this film, to see what the rest of the world was learning about birding (although only two other people were in the theater with me). The good news is that “competitive birding” takes a big hit: it comes across as obsessive, unseemly and not a whole lot […]
One take is that the entire movie is the coma-induced imaginings of Joao, an abandoned bastard longing to know his real parents. That would explain the fancy balls, the imprisoned duchess, the Dickensian coincidences and the consistent world view of nobles flirting, seducing and changing identities. Another take: let’s make a movie that animates all […]
A very French look at existence through the eyes, and videocamera, of 11-year-old Paloma, brilliantly acted by one Garance Le Guillermic, a “child actor” in physique only. Just as wonderful is the title character played by Josiane Balasko, a frumpy concierge who reads Tolstoy in private. While the ending alludes to Anna Karenina, I’m sure […]
A tableau vivant in which ‘reality’ is a painting – specifically, Pieter Breugel’s “Road to Cavalry.” The movie obscures Jesus’s crucifixion amid 16th-century Flemish peasants and red-tunicked Spanish soldiers, just as Breugel did in his metaphor-filled canvas. With minimal soundtrack and even less dialogue, watching this film becomes an intense experience, and trying to piece […]
By treating baseball players as commodities – to be coldly evaluated, drafted, traded and released – Moneyball has made the players I watch nightly on television seem more human than I have regarded them before. I can’t, however, share in the general adulation accorded Brad Pitt. He floats above the locker room more movie star […]
A deft amalgam of rowdy humor and murderous criminality, this dramedy rode the broad back of Brendan Gleeson to a wistful conclusion that made you mourn the end of the story, and perhaps the character. Unfortunately, both were let down by Don Cheadle’s unbelievable American counterpart, more Stepin Fetchit than crime-stopper. What a lone FBI […]
A taut, tingling, stylish and supercool action thriller. The plot is a genre staple; how it is told makes the movie. Nicolas Winding Refn uses silences, and holds them, while the background drumbeat and technomusic push the suspense, and when violence erupts it is shocking – as in the sensation of an electric prod on […]
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