For all the explosions, gunfire, firestorms, and manly gnashing of teeth, TERMINTATOR SALVATION has an overriding weariness to it. The franchise, while robust box-office wise, has essentially been telling the same story now for a quarter of a century. A tale of time-travel, murderous cyborgs, and a father born decades after his son’s conception is… Read More »
IS ANYBODY THERE?
IS ANYBODY THERE? is the poignant title of a bittersweet film about life, death, and magic. Its also one of Michael Caines best performances, and thats saying a great deal. Hes The Amazing Clarence, a retired magician whose life hasnt turned out to be quite as amazing as his van insistantly proclaims. They, his life… Read More »
MOON
Duncan Jones’ debut feature, MOON, is a sharp and intelligent consideration of reality itself. An engrossing tale set in the near future on the dark side of our planet’s satellite, it probes the equally dark side of the human condition and in the process does what the best science fiction ought to do, which is… Read More »
CENTURION
CENTURION mixes a thoroughly honorable high-mindedness with frequent and jarring examples of torture porn. While the ethics of using human beings as pawns in political games is the central theme of the story, the execution is less than astute. What may have aspired to be an intelligent action flick is instead a standard chase flick… Read More »
LORD OF THE DANCE 3D
It was not the most intuitive hit of a road show, traditional Irish folk dancing, both classical and tweaked into modernity, married to the slightest wisp of an overbaked melodrama based in Irish folk culture. Yet in the hands and flying feet of Michael Flatley, LORD OF THE DANCE sold out performance after performance in… Read More »
JANE EYRE
There is something unsettling about a womans direct gaze, one that is engaged, attentive, but unsmiling. One that neither dissembles, nor attempts to disguise the intelligence of the viewer. Disconcerting now, in the early Victorian age in which JANE EYRE is set, its positively revolutionary. In the person of Mia Wasikowska, it’s a thoroughly modern… Read More »
W.E.
That Madonna would feel an affinity with Mrs. Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough), eventual Duchess of Windsor, another woman who was the object of controversy and the fodder of tabloids is understandable. Yet what she has done with the story of a self-made woman who so entranced Englands King Edward VIII (James DArcy) that he abdicated… Read More »
AWAKENING, THE
THE AWAKENING is a superbly crafted film, and for films of this ilk, execution is everything. The ilk is a horror story, the premise is an investigator (Rebecca Hall) determined to debunk fake mediums and ersatz hauntings. Its 1921 and London, like so many other places that have survived both World War I and the… Read More »
HYDE PARK ON HUDSON
HYDE PARK ON HUDSON is an interesting rather than a compelling film. Based on the recently discovered diaries of Daisy Stuckley, it tells the behind-the-scenes tale of her affair with Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray), her fourth for fifth cousin depending on how its counted, during the tumultuous summer of 1939. The Great Depression is… Read More »
TRANCE
TRANCE is a thing of grotesquely fascinating beauty, an evolved noir designed to provoke and to disturb in equal measure as it toys with the audience’s notions of absolute certainty. It begins with the winsome James McAvoy addressing the audience directly, his sadly earnest face a perfect picture of open honesty as he sets up… Read More »