Schmidt and Jenko are back, and we should all rejoice. 22 JUMP STREET starts out every bit as funny as 21 JUMP STREET was, and then keeps upping its game. Once more co-written by co-star Jonah Hill (Schmidt), it is an inspired bit of whip-smart silliness that refuses to take itself seriously. On the other… Read More »
PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL
PREY FOR ROCK AND ROLL is a high-octane ride through the world of rock and roll as it is actually lived by most of its practitioners. No private jets, no limos, no personal manager smoothing out the rough edges of reality, in fact, not enough to cover the rent. Such is the life of Jacki… Read More »
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT
I’m going to say something now that will be the deciding factor for some of you about whether or not you want to see THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT. Its star, Ashton Kutcher, spends an extended sequence barely wearing a towel, his taut, toned, and ripped physique on display for the multitudes. For the rest of you,… Read More »
WALKING TALL
There was a time, I promise you, when the prospect of a remake did not immediately cause members of the reviewing press to reach for their sedation of choice. No, there was a time when people actually looked forward to seeing what Judy Garland would do with the Esther Blodgett role in A STAR IS… Read More »
THE AVIATOR
Crash and burn is a painfully apt metaphor for the life of Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) as told in Martin Scorseses THE AVIATOR. We even see two such events in the course of its almost three hours of running time. Unlike the tidier myth of Icarus, though, Hughes story is more than just genius meeting… Read More »
RUMOR HAS IT
RUMOR HAS IT, a dreary pseudo-sequel to 1968’s THE GRADUATE, tacks uncertainly between the far-fetched and the cliché as it hedges its bets rather than sharpens its claws with a story that dishonors the memory of that iconic classic. The action picks up in 1997 when Sarah (Jennifer Anniston) flies home from New York for… Read More »
THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
At one point during THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, based on the novel by Karen Joy Fowler, one member of the eponymous club watches another burst into tears and run into another room over an Austenian point. “Reading Jane Austen is a minefield” she opines, and so it is. Not because the subject matter of… Read More »
LA VIE EN ROSE (LA MOME)
Edith Piaf was no ordinary singer. She lived live at a fever pitch, driven by demons from her horrific childhood, and cruel twists of fate that together drove her to an early grave. No ordinary bio-pic would do to capture the essence of what Piaf was, rather than what happened to whom and when. And… Read More »
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Bryan Lee O’Malley, redefines the cinematic linear narrative by frog-marching it straight into the psyche of the post-adolescent zeitgeist. A slick synthesis of graphic novel and cinema, it becomes much more that just he sum of its parts, it becomes… Read More »