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FILM
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March 31st, 2010
“The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is a fantastic little movie from the increasingly erratic American auteur Wes Anderson. The film, shot entirely with dolls and puppets in stop-motion, is a perfect fit for the meticulous Anderson, who has always treated his real-life actors and sets like carefully arranged toys, sometimes to great success (“The Royal Tenenbaums”) and sometimes to outré inexplicability (the stupid shark scene in “The Life Aquatic”).
March 17th, 2010
We went in half-expecting the blood-splattering glory of “Sweeney Todd” or “Sleepy Hollow” (“Off with her head!”), but Tim Burton reigns in his macabre mind this time to make a benign girls-feel-good Disney movie, a trouble-free modern fantasy adventure. The setting is surreal, but the story’s straightforward. Writer Linda Woolverton re-imagines Lewis Carroll’s Alice, now 19, who runs away from her own engagement party and falls down the rabbit hole again, to “Underland” (apparently she heard it wrong when she visited at age 13).
March 10th, 2010
 Film Review: The Blind Side
On the surface, “The Blind Side” is a sports film meant to uplift and celebrate the human spirit. Yet, as it plods along, it becomes nothing more than an Oscar-vehicle for Sandra Bullock, who plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a southern woman whose character is encapsulated in dialogue uttered in the final third of the film: “I’m in a prayer group with the DA, I’m a member of the NRA and I’m always packing.” This is unfortunate, because Bullock’s charm helps lift some of the cliché moments in the film—but her performance alone cannot make up for this paint-by-numbers exercise in filmmaking.
March 3rd, 2010
You can remake a classic, but you can’t repeat it. So director Rob Marshall (“Chicago”) threw a smart curveball with his retelling of Federico Fellini’s 1963 autobiographical masterpiece “8 1⁄2”—he chose instead to adapt its 1982 musical spin-off, “Nine.” And the result, though flawed in many ways, is rather entertaining.
February 24th, 2010
“Precious” is an important film, and one you should probably go and see. It’s important because it holds a magnifying glass up to the small and seemingly insignificant human tragedies that happen every day. That said, it’s not by any means an enjoyable film per se, and you might want to seriously consider whether your mind frame can cope with such an onslaught of unrelenting misery before attempting to see this. In short, be in a dark mood.
February 10th, 2010
It takes quite a few elements to be a world-class film maestro—a crazy mind, a unique style, a muse and a whole lot of issues. Spain’s national treasure Pedro Almodóvar has all these qualities in his pocket, and he doesn’t hold back in “Broken Embraces.” And it turns out... hmm... fine.
February 3rd, 2010
Welcome to the Fantasmagoric Wonder-Emporium of Doctor Phinaes T. Parnassium! Follow the rabbit through the looking glass and help the Christian lion Aslan lead his army of wood nymphs on a journey to recover the Chocolate Factory, and... oops wait, I think I just leaked the spoiler for the Wayans brothers’ “Fantasy Movie.”
January 27th, 2010
“An Education” is the first screenplay by novelist Nick Hornby (“About a Boy”), and while the story itself—young girl falls for an older man who probably isn’t much good for her—isn’t a new one, neither in cinema nor in real life, the spectacular cinematography and stellar cast make it a must-see. Set in 1960s England, the story centers around Jenny (Carey Mulligan), a beautiful, bright schoolgirl just about to sit for her A-Levels.
January 20th, 2010
Since 2004’s cult hit “Napoleon Dynamite,” there’s been something of a surge in whip-smart indie-teen movies. You know the ones; they’re set in decidedly unglamorous middle-American locations, and starring a decidedly unglamorous and badly dressed cast. Not that we’re complaining; they’re certainly a welcome break from the ditzy “geek girl attending LA high school takes off glasses and gets the school hunk” flicks so beloved back in the early noughties. “Whip It” is another of these films, cut from the same cloth as “Juno” or “Superbad,” and while it’s not exactly reinventing the cinematic wheel, it’s certainly a welcome addition to the genre.
January 13th, 2010
Black comedies are like sex—they’re desired, they’re accessible, but the really good ones are just darn hard to find. Well, at least when the Coen Brothers are not around. So we should all be glad with the arrival of those goat-staring men and their delirious eye-opening story because it’s wildly quirky, wacky, and most importantly, true. I mean, how could you possibly make this up?
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