Beautiful Creatures
Just when you thought you were done with the perennial teenage supernatural romance, it’s back! Oh yes, and with many more yet to come. For those still in denial that the bookstores are crawling with these kinds of stories, Beautiful Creatures may not be the best weekend ticket, but for those for whom this is the bedtime reading of choice, or those willing to give magical types a second shot, please proceed. Beautiful Creatures is a chicken-and-dumplings plate with a heapin’ helping of that angst-filled young love so common to tween fantasy, and Flannery O’Conner-flavored Southern Gothic. (The meal is... read more
Like Someone in Love
Masterfully beguiling, Like Someone in Love is a little gem of a film that explores how relationships and roles change depending on the needs, circumstances and desires of the people involved. Much like Abbas Kiarostami’s previous effort, Certified Copy, his new film has its characters pretending to be people they’re not and in the process, relationships deepen and evolve.... read more
No
It’s a strange notion that happiness can be packaged and bought like a bottle of ketchup. But in order for Chileans to overthrow their dictatorship in a 1988 election, this is what had to happen—enough citizens had to buy into the idea of a future state of happiness. And, as is the case for most products, happiness had to be advertised. Pablo Larrain’s fourth film and third installment of his trilogy about Chile’s dictatorship, No tells the story of how an advertising campaign for happiness overthrew 15 years of tyrannical rule.... read more
The Playroom
In the tradition of The Ice Storm, The Playroom revisits 1970s suburbia, when the chilly civility between husband and Stepford wife bumps up against the sexual revolution. Over the course of one endless night, their teenage daughter transitions to womanhood with eyes wide open to what lies before her and what she’s leaving behind.... read more
Lore
The fascinating and visually stunning new WWII-era film, Lore, features a protagonist whose perspective is one not usually heard from in the genre. The movie, an Australian-German coproduction directed by Aussie filmmaker Cate Shortland, takes place in Germany in the immediate aftermath of the war—Hitler has just committed suicide. Lore (played by Saskia Rosendahl), the titular character, is rushed off to a house in the countryside by her Nazi parents, who realize that they will soon face recriminations and imprisonment by the occupying Allied forces. Their fears soon prove founded, as Lore’s father (Hans-Jochen Wagner) disappears and her mother (Ursina... read more
The Gatekeepers
Nominated for an Oscar and winner of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s Best Documentary Feature award, Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers may sound dry on paper: It’s a Hebrew-language documentary on Shin Bet—Israel’s internal security service. But the film resonates with viewers largely due to its access to and the candidness of its interview subjects: the six surviving directors of the Israeli secret service. Through their retrospection—and some arresting special-effects wizardry—The Gatekeepers explores the role Shin Bet has played in Israel’s short, tumultuous history.... read more
Warm Bodies
A highly elastic sub-genre, zombie films tend to fall into one of three categories: “message” (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of..., Day of... ); “gross-out gore with humor” movies (Evil Dead II, Dead Alive, Return of the Living Dead); or the inverse of the former, “humorous with gore” (Shaun of the Dead, Fido, Zombieland). read more
Sound City Sundance 2013 Review
Sound City is the story of Fleetwood Mac. It’s the story of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It’s the story of drum tones and ’80s hair metal and Nevermind and Johnny Cash’s recordings with Rick Rubin. read more
Escape from Tomorrow Sundance 2013 Review
There was little debate about which movie at Sundance had the ballsiest production. It’s one thing to steal some footage on the street without a permit, it’s another to set a film almost entirely inside Disney World without Disney’s permission. read more
The World According to Dick Cheney Sundance 2013 Review
There are all sorts of speculative theories—some of them quite plausible—about the sinister motives behind Dick Cheney’s vice presidency. read more
Movie 43
It’s difficult enough to develop compassion for cinematic characters in the long form. It takes the combined effort of cast, crew and a little of that old movie magic to create enduring feelings for fictional creations. So naturally, turning a film into a series of short jokes creates hurdles. The episodic elements break down the continuity that carries the audience from start to finish. Ideally, the thematic elements of vignettes will unite them in a way that fashions a connected narrative, even if that short form, repeated for effect, isn’t a traditional story. But it’s so easy for things to... read more
Upstream Color Sundance 2013 Review
Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color builds a stunning mosaic of lives overwhelmed by decisions outside their control, of people who don’t understand the impulses that rule their lives. read more
Fruitvale Sundance 2013 Review
Walking into Fruitvale, you probably already know what happens at the end; it's based on the very high-profile 2009 shooting of a young African American by a subway police officer in Oakland. read more
The Gatekeepers Sundance 2013 Review
Director: Dror Moreh Dror Moreh’s documentary has already played at Telluride and Toronto, and is even already nominated for an Oscar, but it plays Sundance this year in the Spotlight section, reserved for a select few films that have played other festivals. It earns its spot, and then some Amazingly, Moreh conducted interviews with every single head of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The access boggles the mind, and some of the stories are riveting. If there’s a flaw in the film, it’s one of bias—the film dwells on Israeli atrocities while mitigating its criticisms of Palestinian terrorism. Still, it’s... read more
Manhunt Sundance 2013 Review
Manhunt is a frustrating experience, though not without its rewards. read more
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters represents the latest salvo in Hollywood’s barrage of “gritty/clever” updates on classic fairy tales, the littermate of Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Red Riding Hood, Beastly, etc. (It won’t be the youngest of the lot for long, with Jack the Giant Slayer and Maleficent on the way.) All things considered, it’s been a brutally banal run. In a risk-averse industry of copycats, uninspired genre/subgenre streaks are not all that unusual, but still, there’s usually a progenitor, a movie that blows up the box office and triggers the cascade. With a little... read more
C.O.G. Sundance 2013 Review
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez Writers: David Sedaris, Kyle Patrick Alvarez Stars: Jonathan Groff, Corey Stoll, Denis O’Hare, Dale Dickey, Dean Stockwell, Troian Bellisario For those who believe that David Sedaris can do no wrong (and I was awfully close to that sentiment until today), this film will be a bit of a wake-up call. It’s the first film based on a Sedaris story, and it falls flat. The characters are of tedious cardboard and are nearly without interest, wasting the considerable character talents of the likes of Dale Dickey and Dean Stockwell. Corey Stoll and Denis O’Hare fare somewhat better,... read more
The East Sundance 2013 Review
Director Zal Batmanglij and Actress Brit Marling join forces again as co-writers in their fast-moving followup to 2012's Sound of My Voice. read more
Happy People: A Life in the Taiga
Werner Herzog never hesitates to express his point of view on film, especially through the omniscient voiceovers that are the backing track of many of his recent documentaries. In Grizzly Man, he waxed poetic about the cruel and terrifying emptiness of nature’s fury. In Into The Abyss his contempt for the death penalty was on full display. And in Herzog’s new documentary, a collaboration with Russian filmmaker Dmitry Vasyukov called Happy People: A Life in the Taiga, he posits that the Russian trappers who live in an extremely remote part of Siberia are indeed happy as they face extreme hardships... read more
Mud Sundance 2013 Review
It's a sweet tale that displays plenty of faith in humanity without ever veering into sappiness and always keeping you on the edge of your seat—just the kind of thing you hope to find at a festival like Sundance. read more
