Just because you >can< render an animated classic into a live-action CGI extravaganza doesn’t mean that you should. Case in point, PINOCCHIO. It’s not an awful film but bringing the animated characters into the real world doesn’t add anything to the story of a little wooden puppet who dreams of being a real boy. Rather,… Read More »
7500
7500, the code used for hijackings, takes the all-too-familiar tropes of a terrorist hijacking and reframes them with a harrowing story that unfolds in real time. By removing any hint of sensationalism from the events, filmmaker Patrick Vollrath focuses on the moment-to-moment uncertainty of people ripped in an instant from the security of their familiar… Read More »
PREMIUM RUSH
Told with a frenetic, breakneck style that nicely evokes the anarchic life- and riding style of the most dedicated bike messengers, Premium Rush is a thrill-packed entertainment designed to be both diverting and fun. The which it is and then some thanks to the cast of solid actors and a story that is almost never… Read More »
LATTER DAYS
Oh no, it’s another film about a religious good boy moving to the big bad city and discovering that he’s gay. I know, it sounds awful in that we’ve seen this a gazillion times sense, but LATTER DAYS is a cut above the rest for its gentle message about finding the strength to see other… Read More »
BRICK
There is in seeing Rian Johnson’s neo-noir, BRICK, the sense that this is not just a startlingly original, wholly engrossing, and brilliantly plotted piece of work. There is the sense that it is nothing less than a flawless masterpiece made all the more remarkable for being Johnson’s maiden cinematic effort. The idioms of the noir… Read More »
INCEPTION
Christopher Nolan spent eight years perfecting the script for INCEPTION, the first script of his that hes directed since is stunning, time-bending debut, FOLLOWING. The result is a complex meditation on the interplay between the conscious mind and the layers below it, and the insidious tendency they have to pull the strings of perception on… Read More »
LOOPER
The sign of a great film is not just the story it tells. Its the way that story is told, with an attention to the tiniest detail that makes each second of screen time, the tiniest bit of action part of a whole that is holographic. Each element is a reflection of that whole that… Read More »
THE LOOKOUT
With fearless performances in Greg Araki’s poetically disturbing MYSTERIOUS SKIN, in Rian Johnson’s piquantly original BRICK and now in writer/director Scott Frank’s THE LOOKOUT, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. As good as Frank’s script is, and make no mistake, it is superb, it’s Gordon-Levitt who takes… Read More »
THE LOOKOUT DVD
THE LOOKOUT is another showcase in the burgeoning career of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the best actors working today. It may be a low key noir in which he is working, but his performance as Chris Pratt, a brain-damaged former golden boy, is nothing less than riveting. The evolution of his character surpasses the seeming… Read More »