After an uncertain sophomore effort, the ICE AGE franchise has bounced back, more or less, with its third installment. The message is the same, family arrives in the least expected of forms, and though one may love the other members of ones herd, one doesnt necessarily like them all of the time. The humor is… Read More »
I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER
I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER is a raucous coming of age film that compresses the action into one tumultuous day and night. The day is graduation, the coming of age is done by Dennis, and the tumultuous is courtesy of the object of his longing, the eponymous Beth Cooper. It is a time fraught with… Read More »
GENTLEMEN BRONCOS
With GENTLEMAN BRONCOS, Jared and Jerusha Hess hearken back to their maiden effort, NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE, but this is no retread. Though the theme of a loser with dreams staying true to himself and to them is the fodder, this treatment takes it in unexpected but delightfully peculiar directions. It is the celebration of pure imagination… Read More »
PIRATE RADIO
What PIRATE RADIO does that is so remarkable is to capture as closely as a film can what it was like to be a fan of rock & roll at a time when it was considered not just noise, but actual subversion. Of course, in a way it was. This music was the anthem of… Read More »
THE BROTHERS BLOOM
The successful con is the one where everyone gets what they want. Its a statement that is profound in its simplicity. The same is true of THE BROTHERS BLOOM, where the premise is postulated and then proven with a deceptively simple plot that hides in plain sight. The brothers in question are Stephen (Mark Ruffalo)… Read More »
UGLY TRUTH, THE
The wonderful thing about Gerard Butler is that his puckish animal magnetism can almost carry a clunker like THE UGLY TRUTH. A putative romantic comedy about the fundamental differences between men and women, it reduces both genders to emotional cripples while failing to find any humor in the situation. Katherine Heigl, an engaging enough actress,… 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 »
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS?
DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? is a harmless wisp of a film that trades on Hugh Grant’s charm, Sarah Jessica Parker’s fan base, and the general good will of the audience. At least one of those three has been sorely tested by the time the end credits roll. Possibly two. The Morgans in question… Read More »
FANTASTIC MR. FOX
For years, Wes Anderson has created separate cinematic universes, different but oddly familiar, in which to tell his offbeat tales of family dynamics. In FANTASTIC MR. FOX, he has taken the next logical step and created an actual alternate reality. Using stop-motion animation, and a tale of excesses unbound by Roald Dahl, he has concocted… Read More »
IT’S COMPLICATED
Working from a slight script that rarely surprises, the superb cast of IT’S COMPLICATED make an otherwise mediocre cinematic exercise into something that, if not profound, at least entertaining, at times, even moving. Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin are Jane and Jake, a happily divorced Santa Barbara couple who have spent the last 10 years… Read More »
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