It was not pre-meditated, Howard Wakefield’s snap decision to remove himself from his family. As he explains to us in the ongoing narration of WAKEFIELD, rather it was an accumulation of minor discontents culminating in a particularly bad commute and a raccoon with a disconcerting assertion of proprietary rights. Thus begins an existential consideration of… Read More »
DANNY COLLINS Overcomes
Narratively, DANNY COLLINS commits more than a few faux pas, but there is such warmth to the melancholy of a life discovered to have been wasted, that the winces they produce are worth enduring. Writer/director Dan Fogelman (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE) may be too quick the play the melodrama card, but I prefer to focus on… Read More »
INVENTION OF LYING, THE
THE INVENTION OF LYING is a wildly funny flick that never sacrifices its considerable humor, nor its even more considerable acuity when it comes to parsing human nature. A world without falsehood, or even a word for it, or for truth, for that matter, is the conceit at work, and co-writer and star Ricky Gervais… Read More »
GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST
The only thing of note in GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST is that its star, Matthew McConaughey, doesn’t remove his shirt. Otherwise this retread of A Christmas Carol only serves to prove that a good story can be ruined with a bad retelling. For the whole redemption aspect of the story to actually pay off, the… Read More »
VALENTINE’S DAY
VALENTINE’S DAY is a mixed bag of genially unchallenging material designed to appeal to the widest possible audience without actively alienating anybody. It’s a formula that leaves little leeway for anything of a whiz bang nature. Using multiple story lines all loosely centered around a florist helps segregate the dreck from the more entertaining snippets,… Read More »
ARTHUR
Its not that Russell Brand has been wholly miscast as the titular character in the remake of ARTHUR, rather its that hes been given too much space in which to work. His performance of an impromptu and witty solo about being emasculated by his fiancee (Jennifer Garner) has about it the whiff of Noel Coward,… Read More »
DAREDEVIL
Maybe it’s time to say something out loud that many of us have been thinking about Ben Affleck’s career at least since PEARL HARBOR. The only thing that could possibly explain why it refuses to die the death it so richly deserves is that Mr. Affleck must have at some point made a pact with… Read More »
13 GOING ON 30
When working with a script that is slight and a premise that is high concept, it is vitally important that the star of the film be able to carry the weight of whats missing on her pretty shoulders in such a way that shortcomings can be overlooked. And so it is fortunate that 13 GOING… Read More »
ELEKTRA
ELEKTRA’s mission as a film was to be better than DAREDEVIL, the benighted Ben Affleck vehicle in which the character of the knife-wielding super-heroine previously appeared. It succeeds, but then again, it’s not like it had a high bar to clear. Fans of Jennifer Garner will not be disappointed with ELEKTRA, which brings back that… Read More »