It Might Get Loud – 5
See The September Issue, above. Maybe I just need a break from documentaries. I think a documentary just about either Jimmy Page or the Edge, with more concert footage, would have been better. I did like Page’s hair.
Author Archive for: Bob Marshall
Entries by Bob Marshall
The September Issue – 5
No plot. No drama. A superficial look at a superficial subject, although I will say that Anna Wintour commanded the camera. The Devil Wears Prada was better.
Coco Before Chanel – 5
Love, fashion – and, oh, a lot of cigarette-smoking by our heroine – is about all there was in this ultimately tiresome period biopic. The story of how Gabrielle (Coco) maneuvered into society had some zip, but it was subsumed in the story of how her forays into personal expression fomented a fashion revolution, which […]
Into Temptation – 6.5
Why would a successful call girl choose suicide, in such deliberate fashion no less? Why would a Catholic priest risk his career, and his life, to stop her, without even knowing who she is? Despite such an unconvincing premise, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie’s indie pace, the encounters between characters, the small jokes (often at […]
Tetro – 6.5
Francis Ford Coppola channels Almodovar, but doesn’t quite capture the magic. The setting in La Boca in Buenos Aires is wonderful, as is the Penelope Cruz stand-in, Maribel Verdu. In fact, the black-and-white triangle of Verdu, the young Bennie, and the overly intense Vincent Gallo is the movie’s Pinteresque strength. The flashbacks in contrasting color […]
Inglourious Basterds – 3
You don’t go to a Warhol exhibition expecting to see a Vermeer or a Rembrandt, but you don’t expect to find only a Jeff Koons, either. Quentin Tarantino obviously has all the techniques of moviemaking at his disposal, but he failed to engage me emotionally or intellectually, and for every gripping scene there was a […]
The Cove – 4.5
As far as the movie goes, it was a lot of buildup, not much payoff. The comparison that came to mind is Man on Wire – assembling the team, figuring out equipment, evading detection, etc. – but there the climax was moments of pure exhilaration and triumph, here it was a scene not too different […]
District 9 – 8
Who are the bad guys here? Is it the “prawns” from outer space? The Nigerian hoodlums? The profit-driven corporate chieftains at MNU? Or the trigger-happy South African Defense Force? We know the good guy is the pencil-pusher Wikus van der Merve, and what a good guy! Meak, somewhat wimpy, none too bright, and yet he […]
The Perfect Getaway – 4.5
This is a one-trick movie, and once you see that it is a dirty trick being played on the viewer, the modest respect I had for the Hawaiian scenery and Steve Zahn’s character flew out the window. There are “red snappers” – I mean, herrings – galore, but the switcheroo is not of that ilk. […]
(500) Days of Summer -7.5
Glad I saw this with my wife because, whereas I saw Summer as gorgeous perfection, too good for any guy in this movie, my wife saw Summer as vapid, emotionally withholding, not worthy of Tom, whom I saw as a feckless twerp. Of course, we were both right, which is a testament to the fine […]
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