It’s a toss-up which is more unpredictable: creative impulse when given full rein, or that same impulse when it is stymied, though, perhaps one is a little that is more dangerous than the other. The struggle, be it artistic or procreative, is the theme of Sebastian Silva’s NASTY BABY, a modern fable about family, friendship,… Read More »
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS
OUR BRAND IS CRISIS is an oft told tale of political machinations played in the vacuum of the zero-sum game that is the electoral process in modern times. In it, we are reminded, candidates are products, issues are what the spin-meisters dictate, and the public is there to provide the score card used by which… Read More »
TRUTH
James Vanderbilt’s TRUTH is a careful, disturbing dissection of the triumph of style over substance, flash over facts, insinuated itself, and then took over, television news. Based on the book Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power by Mary Mapes, it examines that moment in history when the eponymous truth… Read More »
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER is a long slog. There are few genuine scares. There are few remarkable special effects. There is, instead, a pervasive and persistent lassitude to this tale of an immortal witch hunter, Kaulder (Vin Diesel), and the complicated relationship he has tracking down the eponymous practitioners of magic. Kaulder is very good… Read More »
CRIMSON PEAK
If CRIMSON PEAK offered nothing more than the creepiest bathtub specter since THE SHINING, it would still qualify as a monstrously entertaining film. But this is Guillermo del Toro directing and co-writing, and so the lushness of subtext mirrors the classically Gothic idiom of the story. The paranormal is the least disturbing of the elements… Read More »
BRIDGE OF SPIES
Clad, metaphorically, in a shining armor of truth, and wielding an equally luminous sword of righteousness, Tom Hanks as attorney James Donovan is the embodiment of American virtue, right down to the meat loaf he has for dinner, the which is not touched until he has said grace with his wife and three kids. There was, no… Read More »
HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN
HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN’T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN is a robust telling of the historian’s life and times that does the spirit of the man credit. First Run Feature has re-released the 2004 documentary with a plethora of bonus features, and were smart enough to realize that the only thing better than this… Read More »
AS ABOVE SO BELOW
Whatever else AS ABOVE SO BELOW has to recommend it, and it has several things that eminently do so, it has breathed a little fresh air into the found footage genre of horror film. This is a tidy little horror film heavy on mood, light on gore, and bursting with a refreshing originality of story… Read More »
THE MARTIAN
THE MARTIAN asks some tough metaphysical questions as it answers some thorny scientific problems with nifty solutions. What’s worth living for? What’s worth dying for? And why should giving up never be an option? The premise is daunting. Mark Watney (Matt Damon), ace botanist and member of the Ares 3 exploratory expedition to Mars in… Read More »
SICARIO
There are many iconic moments in SICARIO, but the one that sticks in my mind is the one where dedicated and upright FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is being given the lowdown from glib and slippery DOJ agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) about what winning the war on drugs will really entail. The camera… Read More »
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- …
- 147
- Next Page »