Movie Reviews
Ghostly pup: School science project goes monstrously awry
Published on Oct 10th, 2012
0 comments In 1984, Tim Burton launched his career with a live-action short named Frankenweenie, and now he returns to that material for the new Frankenweenie, a stop-motion, black-and-white animated comedy...
Gripping thriller: Why we're rooting for the guilty man
Published on Oct 2nd, 2012
0 comments We tend to identify with the leading character of a film, even if he is a heartless bastard. Few films illustrate this curiosity better than Nicholas Jarecki's Arbitrage, and few actors might have...
Masterfully empty: Star-studded cast fizzles
Published on Sep 26th, 2012
0 comments Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" is fabulously well-acted and crafted, but when I reach for it, my hand closes on air. It has rich material and isn't clear what it thinks about it. It has two...
For a good time, call...: Disarmingly entertaining, or just plain vulgar?
Published on Sep 19th, 2012
0 comments ** For a Good Time, Call... starring: Ari Graynor, Lauren Miller, Justin Long director: Jamie Travis playing: Regal Downtown R - 85 minutes Of the lonely ways to spend money, paying for phone...
Rashida forever: Rom-com sparkles with plot twist
Published on Sep 12th, 2012
0 comments "Celeste and Jesse Forever" is a good-hearted romantic comedy about a likable couple — so likable, indeed, that it swims upstream against the current of our desires. The two have been happily...
Violence in Virginia: Moonshiners vs. the law in Franklin County
Published on Sep 4th, 2012
1 comments Lawless is a well-made film about ignorant and violent people. Like Killer Joe of four weeks ago, I can only admire the craftsmanship and acting, and regret its failure to rise above them. Its...
Hit and Run: So much better than the title suggests
Published on Aug 29th, 2012
0 comments With an off-the-shelf title like "Hit and Run," I had worked up less than a white-hot enthusiasm to see this movie, but it's a lot more fun than the title suggests. How many chase comedies have you...
Full-bodied spirit: Finally, a tasteful family film
Published on Aug 21st, 2012
0 comments The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a warm and lovely fantasy, the kind of full-bodied family film that is being pushed aside in favor of franchises and slam-bang confusion. On a picture-postcard farm...
Revision and envision: Relationships ain't easy, even when rewritten
Published on Aug 15th, 2012
0 comments The magical event that happens in the life of a young novelist named Calvin Weir-Fields is a dream come true for him, but it becomes a nightmare. Calvin (Paul Dano) had the misfortune to write, in...
Force of nature: An unknown cast creates a whirlwind
Published on Aug 9th, 2012
0 comments Cut off from the mainland, surrounded by rising waters, the Bathtub is a desolate wilderness of poverty where a small community struggles to survive. Hushpuppy considers it "the prettiest place on...
A waning moon: Dark Knight stumbles (but eventually rises)
Published on Jul 25th, 2012
0 comments The Dark Knight Rises leaves the fanciful early days of the superhero genre far behind and moves into a doom-shrouded, apocalyptic future that seems uncomfortably close to today's headlines. As urban...
Average Allen: Only fleeting love in Woody's latest
Published on Jul 23rd, 2012
1 comments Woody Allen's new film To Rome With Love generates no particular excitement or surprise, but it provides the sort of pleasure he seems able to generate almost on demand. The New Yorker who claims to...
Nude dudes: An unflinching look into the male strip club
Published on Jul 11th, 2012
8 comments Whether you're a man or a woman, making money by allowing people to push cash inside your G-string is, I think we can agree, demeaning. It's probably worse for women because the big spenders with $2...
Super Remake: The Spider-Man story ages well
Published on Jul 4th, 2012
0 comments We live in an age of speed-up, which may explain why the Spider-Man franchise feels the need for a reboot only 10 years after its first picture, and five years after the most recent one. In its broad...
Age of innocence: Youth rises toward a closing curtain
Published on Jun 27th, 2012
3 comments Wes Anderson's mind must be an exciting place for a story idea to be born. It immediately becomes more than a series of events, and is transformed into a world with its own rules, in which everything...
Musicals Rock: Big names demonstrate perfect pitch
Published on Jun 20th, 2012
0 comments "Rock of Ages" is a rags-to-riches rock 'n' roll musical set mostly in a music club on Sunset Strip, and winning no prizes for originality. A lot of it is zesty entertainment, there are some...
Pondering the divine: Ridley Scott proves he is still evolving
Published on Jun 13th, 2012
0 comments Ridley Scott's Prometheus is a magnificent science fiction film, all the more intriguing because it raises questions about the origin of human life and doesn't have the answers. It's in the classic...
Fairest of all: Snow White succeeds in its beauty
Published on Jun 6th, 2012
0 comments Snow White and the Huntsman reinvents the legendary story in a film of astonishing beauty and imagination. It's the last thing you would expect from a picture with this title. It falters in its...
Black hole: Third installment sucks in audiences
Published on May 29th, 2012
2 comments MEN in Black III comes 15 years after the entertaining original and 10 years after the sequel laid an egg, and the surprise is it's better than the first one. Given the passage of time, the entire...
Sauntering Shadows: Burton offers beautiful identity crisis
Published on May 16th, 2012
2 comments TIM Burton's Dark Shadows is all dressed up with nowhere to go, an elegant production without a central drive. There are wonderful things in the film, but they aren't what's important. It's as if...
Marvelous mediocrity: Whedon meets expectations with more of the same
Published on May 9th, 2012
3 comments The Avengers Director: Joss Whedon Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson Playing: Seminole ~ PG-13 - 142 minutes One of the weapons Marvel used in its climb to comic...
Material macabre: Sensational acting drives Poe-laced melodrama
Published on May 1st, 2012
1 comments The Raven Director: James McTeigue Starring: John Cusack, Luke Evans Playing: Carmike ~ R - 111 minutes It is widely known that on Oct. 3, 1849, Edgar Allan Poe was found wandering the...
Touchingly naive: Superb cast wasted on tiresome formula
Published on Apr 25th, 2012
5 comments Think Like a Man Director: Tim Story Starring: Steve Harvey, Meagan Good, Kevin Hart, Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, Chris Brown Playing: Carmike PG-13 ~ 122 minutes Anyone who reads advice...
Empathetic realism: Belgian brothers avoid sentimentality
Published on Apr 18th, 2012
0 comments The Kid with a Bike Directors: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Starring: Thomas Doret, Cecile de France, Jeremie Renier Playing: Vinegar Hill in French, with English subtitles ~ PG-13 - 87 minutes The...
American Reunion: Déjà vu all over again for Stifler etc.
Published on Apr 11th, 2012
1 comments American Reunion Directors: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott, Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy Playing: Carmike  ~ R - 113 min. Has...
No coincidence: In Jeff, Duplass brothers win at whimsy
Published on Apr 3rd, 2012
0 comments Jeff, Who Lives at Home Directors: Jay and Mark Duplass Starring: Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer Playing: Regal Downtown ~ R - 83 min. Jeff is 30, unmarried, unemployed, and...
Spoofing in Spanish: Ferrell puts twist on his usual cheek
Published on Mar 28th, 2012
0 comments Casa de mi Padre Director: Matt Piedmont Starring: Will Ferrell, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna – Coming Soon – ~ R - 84 min. Casa de mi Padre is a cheeky comedy by Will...
Parable for all: Hunger Games skirts true moral commentary
Published on Mar 22nd, 2012
8 comments   The Hunger Games Director: Gary RossStarring: Stanley Tucci and Jennifer LawrencePlaying: Seminole~PG-13  - 142 min. Like many science fiction stories, The Hunger Games portrays a...
Kidding around: Wiig and Rudolph miss the mark
Published on Mar 15th, 2012
0 comments Friends with Kids Director: Jennifer WestfeldtStarring: Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph Playing: Downtown~R - 100 min There must be a better reason to have a baby than to provide a plot...
Forgotten love is rekindled in 'The Vow'
Published on Mar 7th, 2012
0 comments The Vow is a well-behaved, tenderhearted love story about impossibly nice people. It's not even about whether they'll get married. They've been happily married for four years. The problem is,...