Rainn Wilson brings his particular brand of prissy, tightly focused outrage to the large screen in THE ROCKER, an uneven film with moments of wacky physical humor that mostly work, obvious lobs at the music industry done fairly well, and a soundtrack that is to die for. The effort may veer off the rails into… Read More »
THE PROPOSAL
What almost saves THE PROPOSAL from itself is a pair of performances by Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds that have a bold and bracing bite of snarkiness to them. Alas, the formulaic nature of the script requires that they both warm up to each other and in the process, while their characters find true love,… Read More »
GAMER
GAMER, released without the benefit of a press screening, is a big, loud mess that loses its few good ideas in a morass of convoluted storytelling that it has, sadly, confused with stylish innovation. It posits a world in the near future where gaming has lost its virtual quality. Sim-worlds are inhabited by real people… Read More »
IN THE LAND OF BLOOD OF HONEY
Films about the state of affairs in the former Yugoslavia made by the people who lived through the times before, during, and after the breakup of that country have what I have termed a savage whimsy to them. The blackest of humor permeates even the most horrific situations (Danis Tanovics NO MANS LAND comes to… 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 »
LOVE, ACTUALLY
LOVE, ACTUALLY takes upon itself the daunting task of presenting to us love in all its manifestations. Theres the fairy tale, the tragedy, the farce, the friendships and the betrayals all rolled up into a set of interwoven tales that charm but never pander, giving us the bitter with the sweet, the whimsy with the… Read More »
MUNICH
In MUNICH, Steven Spielberg has created an intensely profound, if somewhat flawed, work. Moral debates about right and wrong abound with as many variations as there are characters to expound them, and there are many of both. The message, though, is unequivocal. Killing is an awful business that kills more than the victim, it also… Read More »
MUNICH — DVD
There is no commentary track on the DVD release of MUNICH. There is, instead, an introduction by Steven Spielberg, which is more a making-of piece than a talking head, though there is that, too. He talks about Vengance by George Jonas, the book on which he based his film, the only credible account of what… Read More »
IDLEWILD
IDELWILD starts with a bang, splashing across the screen with a raucous exuberance full of sass, attitude, and an irreverent visual sense that enhances the edginess to the life the protagonists have chosen. If it weren’t for a love story that plops itself in the middle of it, this would have been a classic. As… Read More »
MR. BROOKS
According to some, we live in an age of moral relativism, and Mr. Brooks, a clever script with mediocre performances, explores that concept with nicely honed dash of irony. Our anti-hero, the eponymous Mr. Brooks, aka Earl, is affluent, pro-life, pro-family, and so devoted to his wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter (Danielle Panabaker) that the… Read More »