Blancanieves
As enjoyable as it was before, powered by the Weinstein awards machine, it started barreling toward the Oscars, The Artist was a little obvious, wasn’t it? A black-and-white silent movie about … a black-and-white silent movie star? The greater challenge is to make a black-and-white silent that isn’t meta but is still relevant in the 21st century. Pablo Berger’s exquisite Blancanieves is that film.... read more
Hemingway & Gellhorn
For any filmmaker, dramatizing the life and times of a well-known and highly documented individual frequently stands as a no-win situation. Change too much and people will question your ethics as a storyteller. Change nothing are you are left with the alienating chaos of real life.... read more
Wrong
When Dolph walks into his office, it’s raining. Inside the office, that is. Outside, the sky is clear and sunny, but inside there’s a steady downpour splashing on the desks—soaking the computers, paperwork and personnel. No one, Dolph included, acts as if this is unusual. It is simply another day in the office.... read more
Room 237
There exists a rare species of obsessive moviegoer, the hyper-fan who focuses on one film, mentally and emotionally ingesting it dozens, maybe hundreds, of times. Along a certain parallel, there is also a serious breed of conspiracy theorist, compulsive in his or her beliefs, taking things far beyond just watching Doomsday Preppers for fun. Put these two types together, and you get Room 237, the confounding, eye-opening, and often hilarious documentary about individuals whose over-wired brains are devoted to one cinematic masterpiece: Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.... read more
The Place Beyond the Pines
In a bold follow-up to his controversially rated, critically lauded Blue Valentine, Derek Cianfrance continues his exploration of family ties with The Place Beyond the Pines. In his previous film, which nabbed an Oscar nomination for Michelle Williams, Cianfrance tugged on a frayed marriage, cutting back and forth between its idyllic, if not ideal, beginnings and its nasty, brutish end. In his latest, the writer-director turns his lens on the relationships between fathers and sons in a stubbornly linear narrative that examines the concept of legacy in three distinct acts.... read more
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Love for a film can last long past the most recent viewing. Immediacy might be necessary without the critical mass that can carry a work of art into pop culture immortality, but once a motion picture passes out of the current consciousness and attains a status beyond relevance, it can transform into a beloved keepsake, dusted off every so often as a reminder of our fondness for its dated perfection. Cult hits and classics alike share occupancy in this pantheon—but in the modern era of film and technology’s wedded bliss, fandom of movies can also begin long before they grace... read more
Admission
Paul Rudd and Tina Fey are both eminently likable presences on screen. Rudd’s easygoing, affable charm and comedic timing can set the right tone for any project, and Fey is such a well-respected comedienne that it’s nearly impossible to root against her. Paired together in a romantic comedy aimed squarely at the easy target of American higher education, and you’d expect a lot—sparks, sharp wit, and a generally good time at the movies. Unfortunately for them both (and for the audience), Admission never gives its world-class players the opportunity to do anything but sit on the sidelines while the film... read more
Starbuck
Recycling is a big deal in Hollywood right now. Not the green variety, where placing plastic and glass in the proper containers yields a healthier planet (although that has been quite the cause célèbre from time to time)—no, this is the more cynical version that produces a decidedly different kind of green, and is responsible for regurgitated versions of all manner of material, from lackluster 1970s television to Asian police dramas. Studios believe that familiarity breeds content, and if an audience is even vaguely aware of the original, that audience will choose a mediocre known quantity over risk with the... read more
Spring Breakers
Spring Breakers opens with a slow-motion montage of young, scantily clad revelers, grinding, drinking in excess and giving the middle finger to the camera. That very much sets the tone of the film, which shows beauty and care in the shooting and composition but whose content is ugly and misanthropic.... read more
The Croods
This is where the 3D really shines—not in gimmicky sequences with things flying out of the screen, but by adding a depth to the field of vision that is immersive and subtle. read more
Emperor
Historical drama can be a tricky topic. Attempts to manufacture tension from events long past where the audience presumably already knows the outcome means two things. First, it is in the telling of the story, and not the surprise-free ending, that the cinematic value is gleaned. Second, infusing these events with interests both human and historical means that we need to care about the fates of the people involved. This is especially true of film centering around the exhaustively explored period of World War II. Recycling stories that are often grim and, by now, in danger of being cliched, requires... read more
Gimme the Loot
Many TV shows and movies feature a pair of close friends, but rarely are those onscreen friendships healthy. Usually, the characters are feeding off each other’s problems and bickering with each other. In a refreshing change-up, Gimme the Loot features two leads who work to build each other up despite their differences.... read more
Reality
“Never give up!” These words are repeatedly shouted by Enzo, a character who has fame and fortune as a former reality show star. It’s meant as advice to Luciano (Aniello Arena), a fishmonger who desperately wants to follow in Enzo’s footsteps and appear on Italy’s version of the reality television series, Big Brother. Doggedly, Luciano pursues his dream and as he seems to get closer to the possibility, he unravels. Poignant, potent, and heartfelt, Reality is an incisive character study that shines a light on how TV and the allure of money and fame can distort our perception of ourselves... read more
Stoker
“To become adult is to become free.” Eighteen-year old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) intones these words over Stoker’s opening images—a series of beautifully composed shots of her standing on the side of a desolate road gazing out at something we can’t see.... read more
From Up on Poppy Hill
Adapted from the graphic novel by anime master Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle) and directed by his son Goro (Tales from Earthsea), From Up on Poppy Hill is a lush and lyrical ode to a generation pivoting between the painful past and the promise of the future. Set in 1963 in the harbor city of Yokohama, the hand-drawn 2D ’toon captures a moment in time when Japan is still struggling to recover and rebuild in the wake of World War II while eagerly preparing for the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Against this backdrop, high schoolers Umi... read more
Upside Down
One of the basic tenets of screenwriting is to show, not tell. Upside Down violates this rule in the first minute, and it’s no wonder; the sci-fi romance from writer/director Juan Solanas is the epitome of high concept.... read more
Couldn’t You Wait?: The Story of Silkworm
It’s practically a sub-genre unto itself at this point: Don’t-Call-Them-Indie Rock Docs Featuring Artists Whose Body of Work Remains Virtually Unknown to Mainstream Audiences. (The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, Dig! are just a few recent entries.) Seth Pomeroy’s Couldn’t You Wait?: The Story of Silkworm is the newest offering sure to confuse Netflix’s categorizing algorithm.... read more
Somebody Up There Likes Me
At first glance, Somebody Up There Likes Me might be mistaken for a debut film from a recent graduate of the Wes Anderson School of Offbeat Filmmaking, but the pedigree of its director is concurrent with that of Anderson. The film, which premiered at last year’s SXSW, is director Bob Byington’s fifth writing/directing effort. His first was 1996’s Shameless, which, ironically enough, is the same year Anderson came along with his debut feature, Bottle Rocket.... read more
The End of Love
With his wife as his partner, Mark (Mark Webber) might have handled parenthood fine. Alone, he has neither the maturity nor the wherewithal to rise to the task. The End of Love studies a man in disarray after his wife’s death, trying to care for his 2-year-old son yet lacking (or unwilling to use) any of the tools needed to do so. He soon finds himself alone and lost in a haze of young adulthood.... read more
Ginger & Rosa
We’re all shaped by our environments. Whether it’s the family we grew up in or the times we find ourselves, there’s no denying the massive influence that outside factors have in contributing to the people we’ll become. That’s never more true than in our formative adolescent years, a point that’s hammered home in writer-director Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa, a coming-of-age period tale about a young woman who discovers that her worldview might not be as freely chosen as she’d like to think.... read more
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