The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
For all the unique obstacles that Jackson surmounts, The Hobbit falters most in some of the most ubiquitous of cinematic challenges: pacing and realism. read more
Amour
Austrian filmmaker and sometime provocateur Michael Haneke has mellowed out a bit over the last few years, as evidenced by 2009’s The White Ribbon, a slow-motion, black-and-white exploration of societal decay. (Even his least disturbing films are kind of disturbing.) His latest film, the mundanely horrifying and extremely powerful Amour, follows suit. Even at his most outrageous (depending on one’s stomach for turpitude), Haneke has allows the small, creeping details to do the disturbing rather than extreme images of violence. In films like Benny’s Video and both versions of Funny Games, horrible things happen. But Haneke instills the viewer with... read more
Barbara
Barbara takes place in a world of such profound paranoia that it’s never certain whether the title character is being overly cautious or reckless. Set in 1980s East Germany amongst intense Stasi surveillance, the film seethes with tension, but it isn’t your typical thriller. The suspense lies in whether the characters will be able to lead the lives that they want to lead.... read more
Save the Date
A keen observation of the transition from artsy hipsterhood to responsible adulthood, Michael Mohan’s Save the Date examines the difficulties young adults face considering grown-up phases like marriage when half of their parents have divorced. With irrepressibly appealing performers playing flawed characters, he strikes a chord that resonates, even if some of the notes are a bit familiar.... read more
Hyde Park on Hudson
Awkward isn’t always a bad thing. Ben Stiller has made a career out of being nebbishly so. Zooey Deschanel is America’s Awkward Sweetheart. And Hyde Park on Hudson, the new film about a decidedly awkward weekend between the Roosevelts and the Royals, seems to be aiming for the same lovable territory that Ms. New Girl has struck gold with. But despite Bill Murray’s best performance since Lost in Translation, this examination of special relationships struggles to find a consistent tone. The biggest casualty of that struggle? A story rich with history and intrigue, relegated to arguments about mustard and the... read more
Any Day Now
Deeply felt and pointedly political, Any Day Now makes a case for gay adoption that’s hard to argue against, painting a portrait of a loving, though not infallible, family of an unlikely trio of misfits who make a home together. Though set in 1979 West Hollywood, its themes echo loudly in today’s courtrooms as well through compelling characters and an unrelenting narrative.... read more
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding
At the outset, director Donald Rice’s feature film debut, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, seems rife with possibilities. The ingredients for a British period dramedy can be ticked off a list: An ensemble of eccentric family members and friends? Check. A conflicted bride? Check. An old suitor? Check. A hapless groom? Double check.... read more
Consuming Spirits
Fifteen years in the making, Chris Sullivan’s Consuming Spiritsis the work of his lifetime—or any lifetime, for that matter. An animated film made for a mature and eccentric audience, it is less a portrayal and more a full-fledged actualization of a bleak, industrial Appalachian town called Gardener’s Corners and the somewhat disturbed residents therein. It’s dark both to the eye and to the mind, but through its incredibly deliberate craftsmanship, it glows.... read more
Wagner and Me
Feature documentary Wagner and Me has few surprises—it informs and entertains its audience and does so quite respectably. But what elevates the film above a standard “talking heads” doc, however, is the way in which it rekindles the spark some people feel for Wagner’s music, and, through the infectious enthusiasm of host Stephen Fry, might even light the flame for others unfamiliar with Wagner.... read more
Lay the Favorite
Poor Rebecca Hall. If someone had told her there was no hope for Lay the Favorite, she could have saved some energy. Everyone else on set apparently realized that nothing could be done to save the film, yet she pushed on, single-handedly trying to give it some charm, some urgency, some compelling reason to exist. Alas, it was a lost cause.... read more
The Girl
Writer-director David Riker’s latest bilingual film, The Girl, takes on the hot-button issue of immigration from a perspective that’s decidedly different from his 1998 breakthrough film The City (La Ciudad), which focused on the Mexican and Central American immigrant population living in New York City.... read more
Hitchcock
The engine powering Gervasi’s otherwise light film into heavier territory is Hopkins, whose performance is the centerpiece, and rightfully so. read more
The Fitzgerald Family Christmas
With The Fitzgerald Family Christmas, writer-director-star Edward Burns returns to the Irish-Catholic working-class milieu of his first two films, The Brothers McMullen and She’s the One, in the mid-’90s. It marks his 11th outing in the director’s chair, and although none has matched the box-office success of his debut, which grossed more than $10 million, Burns’ latest demonstrates the workmanlike skill with which he’s produced a new relationship drama every one or two years.... read more
California Solo
Written expressly for star Robert Carlyle with no idea how to even get the script to him, Marshall Lewy’s California Solo reimagines the cult Scottish actor from Trainspotting as a cult Scottish rocker from the fictional Britpop band The Cranks. read more
In Our Nature
Big screen family dramas are tricky. In the right hands, dysfunction can yield gems like Ordinary People, Little Miss Sunshine or American Beauty. Without the deftness and talent to balance the melodrama, films tend to drift into Lifetime or Hallmark channel territory.... read more
Killing Them Softly
“Very few guys know me.” Uttered by Brad Pitt as gangster enforcer Jackie, these five words make for a terrifying threat—and a great movie line. And there’s plenty more where that came from in writer-director Andrew Dominik’s script for Killing Them Softly, a crime thriller that plays comedic in the moment but dark, bleak and fiendishly stylish in retrospect—all of Dominik’s visual and aural flair centers on the film’s most violent moments to a soundtrack of political broadcasts. A half decade after the gorgeous Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, director and star reunite for another period... read more
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, the latest documentary from Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, delves into the history of sexual molestation in the Catholic Church as cases began to emerge in the late ’50s. While examining the scandals, cover ups and generally appalling abuse of power throughout the church on a global scale, the film also focuses on the story of Father Lawrence Murphy, a Milwaukee priest who sexually molested more than 200 deaf children and remained a free, unprosecuted man until the day of his death from natural causes. The story of the church’s dark history... read more
Anna Karenina
Did we really need another Anna Karenina? Leo Tolstoy’s 1870s epic romance has been adapted for film and television a couple dozen times. Greta Garbo has played the title role. So has Vivien Leigh. And Sophie Marceau. And Jacqueline Bisset. It’s been made in Germany and Italy and Hungary and Argentina and India and the Philippines and, of course, Russia. There’s even an Arabic version.... read more
Rust and Bone
Few films come along and conquer new territory in the way of cinematic storytelling like Rust and Bone. From the opening sequence—a mosaic of images that circle back to the face of a small boy, his lips and nose traced by some unknown finger—to the final scene of a family that almost wasn’t, Jacques Audiard’s latest feature film is a bold and visionary work of art.... read more
Dangerous Liaisons
Adaptations of classic stories like Dangerous Liaisons are always difficult, paradoxical even. The new piece must evoke the memory and energy of the original, even as it branches out and liberates itself, creating a new and distinctive work of art. This year’s Dangerous Liaisons branches in major ways, most obviously in its 1930s China setting, and although one cannot help but compare it to Stephen Frears’ (essentially incomparable) 1988 film starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich, Jin-ho Hur’s Dangerous Liaisons brings a welcome addition to the collection of adaptations of the French classic novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de... read more
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