There is little that tugs more insistently at my heartstrings, cinematically at least, than a film that genuinely means well and falls short. And so it is with WELCOME TO MARWEN, a showcase of CGI and of Steve Carrell’s dramatic chops, but of little else. The story is based on the life of Mark Hogencamp,… Read More »
THE BETTER ANGELS
No plaster saint, nor marble effigy of Abraham Lincoln is to be found in THE BETTER ANGELS. Based on the recollections of Lincoln’s surviving family, as spoken by his cousin about his boyhood in Indiana, this is a Lincoln before the legends had taken root, the Lincoln of great promise whose intellectual curiosity and love… Read More »
UNKNOWN
UNKNOWN is a diverting entertainment, well-plotted with a story that is just convoluted enough to keep the action barreling along with a nice selection of twists, some of which have a tantalizing foreshadowing that adds texture without spilling too many beans. Taking its cue from the best sort of Hitchcockian premise, the innocent man plunked… Read More »
WICKER PARK
WICKER PARK is a dense, elegant mystery directed by Paul McGuigan, who knows the difference between being stylish and being showy. The flash in this tale of love at first sight and its fallout comes from the way it tricks the audience into deceiving itself before unraveling another set of assumptions by deftly shifting the… Read More »
NATIONAL TREASURE
There are many things that an action-adventure flick should be and NATIONAL TREASURE manages to not be most of them. For over two hours, there are car chases, shoot-outs, snarling bad guys, a snarky side-kick, and, because this is the typically overproduced Jerry Bruckheimer effort, explosions, the first a restrained 15 minutes into the proceedings.… Read More »
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS is a cutesy and inane follow-up to the only slightly less cutesy and inane NATIONAL TREASURE. The plot feels like it was cobbled together from the sort of random ideas tossed out during the wee hours of the morning during an all-night brainstorming session, ideas that seem like genius when… Read More »