You can’t blame Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon for thinking that the story of their romance had the makings of a great movie. Kumail (playing himself), a Pakistani immigrant doing stand-up comedy meets graduate student (in psychology, yet), Emily (doe-eyed but tart Zoe Kazan), when she “whoo hoos” him at one of his shows.… Read More »
BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE
For most of BATMAN V SUPERMAN’s bloviated pretension, I was merely bored. This half-baked idea studded with ponderous pronouncements, shockingly sedate action sequences, and the simulacrum of serious philosophical inquiry plodded along, weighed down by an overstuffed plot and an underdeveloped narrative. But when we arrived at a meticulous recreation of the deposition from the… Read More »
LEVITY
Ed Solomon wrote the scripts for MEN IN BLACK and BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. He’s not the guy from whom you’d expect a serious, thoughtful, even intriguing script that wrestles with the theological and philosophical questions of redemption. And yet, with LEVITY, his directorial debut, that’s just what he’s done. The protagonist is Manual, with… Read More »
THIRTEEN
There is a menace to Catherine Hardwickes THIRTEEN. The reason is that the fall from grace and sobriety experienced by its lead character, Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood), is one that she eagerly embraces with all the reckless passion and aching desperation that only a thirteen-year-old can harbor. Hardwicke, setting her story squarely in the real… Read More »
LITTLE BLACK BOOK
LITTLE BLACK BOOK was a pleasant surprise, expecting as I was another mindless bit of drivel highlighted by obvious jokes and a pedestrian script. Now, I dont want to oversell it, but it is with great relief that I report that what started out as a forgettable bit of fluff gradually turned into something a… Read More »
THE INCREDIBLES
Ive been looking forward to THE INCREDIBLES ever since I saw the superbly antic trailer for it that accompanied FINDING NEMO. Thats what makes the experience of having seen it last all the more deflating. Despite first-rate CGI animation and some clever atomic 50s-style art direction, THE INCREDIBLES commits the worst cinematic sin of all,… Read More »