Fifty-plus years after THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, you would be forgiven for thinking that a contemporary film on a similar topic would have something new, or trenchant, or revelatory, or even different to say about addiction. Alas, THANKS FOR SHARING is the one that demands the forgiveness. This is a pasteurized, cliché-ridden piece… Read More »
THE FIFTH ESTATE
Julian Assange is certainly one of the most interesting public figures of out time, and certainly there could be no better choice to play this flawed, complex vessel in a narrative feature based on his adventures on the electronic frontier than Benedict Cumberbatch. Alternately, or perhaps simultaneously, narcissistic and idealistic, diligent and careless, impartial and… Read More »
DIANA
DIANA, the unnecessary tale of the Princess of Wales last true love, is a vapid, banal, and superficial exercise in cheap voyeurism. The object of Dianas affections, heart surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan, is portrayed as a man who, above all, cherished his privacy and his profession, so much so that Dianas celebrity status made their… Read More »
SAVING MR. BANKS
I have three problems with SAVING MR. BANKS, only one of which springs from knowing how much of the story has been Disney-fied. A feature film is not real life, even when based as this one is on actual events if for no other reason, as someone once said, real life doesnt have to make… Read More »
LABOR DAY
LABOR DAY will leave you craving peach pie and your money back. Based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard, it is a leaden piece of work whose excellent acting and evocative direction cant overcome a dicey beginning. Jason Reitman, he of JUNO, YOUNG ADULT, and UP IN THE AIR, directs from… Read More »
THE MONUMENTS MEN
Its easy to be seduced by THE MONUMENT MENs swagger. Directed and co-written by co-star George Clooney, it is as much a tribute to the golden age of Hollywood filmmaking as it is to the brave men who thought that art and culture was worth defending with their lives. It is manipulative, it is at… Read More »
SON OF GOD
If SON OF GOD looks familiar, its because its derived from The History Channels series, The Bible. Producer Roma Downey (who plays Jesus mother in the series and the film) and her producing partner and husband, Mike Burnett, wanted audiences to have the shared experience of seeing the story on the big screen. Ordinarily this… Read More »
NOAH
In the old days, biblical epics were produced as much to have an excuse for prurient excess as for the moral lesson to be imparted by the retelling of a familiar tale of good and evil. Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH is about as far from that trope as it is possible to get and still be… Read More »
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, based on the bestseller of the same name, means well as it attempts for wrest something theologically profound out of its subject matter. Kudos for the try, but the film as a whole is so painfully cardboard and cliché, that those little nuggets of genuinely existential crisis dont stand a chance… Read More »
ANTWONE FISHER
Denzel Washington may just win himself another Oscar nomination this year, though this time out it will be for directing ANTWONE FISHER, one of the most moving films of this or any other year. Not that his performance is anything but sterling, but the nuanced performance he coaxes from Derek Luke, who plays Fisher is… Read More »
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