MIDNIGHT SPECIAL is a film that plays with its audience’s sense of normality. Beginning in the conventional and slowly, almost imperceptibly, moving us from the quotidian drama of a kidnapped child and a father’s unconditional love, into a boldly unconventional consideration of that elusive point where science and spirituality merge. There is nothing predictable here,… Read More »
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE
There are a few bright moments punctuating HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE based the memoir of the same name by Toby Young. Very few. And all of them courtesy of its star, Simon Pegg, a man of great comedic gifts who finds himself in a vehicle greatly unworthy of them. Pegg plays Sydney… Read More »
MONA LISA SMILE
MONA LISA SMILE is what can diplomatically be called a safe film. Its full of lush cinematography that evokes a cloying sense of nostalgia for the early 1950s where the action takes place. There are the adorable outfits the almost all-girl cast wears. The soundtrack is full of pop standards calculated to set the mood… Read More »
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Check to see if Hell has frozen over, if there are flocks of pigs flying overhead, if theres a rip in the space/time continuum, because I’ve seen something that I was sure would never happen: Jim Carrey giving a mature, nuanced performance that is both genuinely affecting and deeply moving. That grail that he has… Read More »
SPIDERMAN 2
I so want to like SPIDERMAN 2 with the unreserved satisfaction that I found with the original. Here is a franchise that is unafraid to tackle serious, real-life issues such as the stickiness of human interaction and dwindling bank accounts, while still pursuing serious reel-life fun. Alas, where the original SPIDERMAN dealt metaphorically and with… Read More »
ELIZABETHTOWN
If you are lucky enough to somehow manage to see only the first ten minutes or so of Cameron Crowe’s ELIZABETHTOWN, you will come away thinking that this has the makings of something interesting, dark, and just a little iconoclastic. Alas, it is followed by almost two hours of meandering randomness that quickly dispenses with… Read More »