John le Carré writes espionage stories in which the action is cerebral and the suspense comes from a keen observation of each protagonist’s character. Thus, the stakes in OUR KIND OF TRAITOR involve much more than the list of names that will topple those in power. They involve the people caught up in the intrigue… Read More »
THE NICE GUYS
Shane Black has the gift of making films that are nail-bitingly suspenseful and wickedly funny at the same time. He did it with KISS KISS BANG BANG, and he’s done it again with THE NICE GUYS, a stylishly acerbic and decidedly hard-boiled neo-Noir pitting nihilism against idealism during the candy-colored decadence of 1977 Los Angeles.… Read More »
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN begins by telling us that we have heard this story before. And we have. Sort of. The Frankenstein (James McAvoy) in question is the one that built the iconic monster out of spare human parts, but it’s Igor (Daniel Radcliffe), the man scientist’s assistant, who is our narrator, and it’s from his fresh,… Read More »
SPY
When I reviewed BRIDESMAIDS, I spent a great deal of my verbiage on Melissa McCarthy’s supporting performance. Rarely had I seen an actress, or actor for that matter, so fearless, so sure of him- or herself, and with such a preternatural gift for discovering humor in the most unexpected places. She was nominated for an… Read More »
LAKEVIEW TERRACE
Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) has very definite ideas about how things should be. His children, an adolescent daughter and a son a bit younger, must use proper grammar at all times, and there are rules about who and who can’t be a role model. His new neighbors, she’s black, he’s white, do not fit… 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 »
MACGRUBER
MACGRUBER takes the Saturday Night Live sketch played to perfection by Will Forte and brings it to the big screen with the sense of the ridiculous intact. No high-end effects, no upscale sets, its a paean to the 80s action hero genre, sub-genre television. Forte, all mullet and ego, plays it with a straight face,… Read More »
RITE, THE
THE RITE forges boldly into some interesting theological territories without ever quite making the trip as interesting as the ideas behind it. What begins as an intriguing consideration of how evil can insinuate itself upon even the most innocent of souls becomes, in a breathtakingly short period of time, a wordy symposium. Concepts and theories… Read More »
TRANCE
TRANCE is a thing of grotesquely fascinating beauty, an evolved noir designed to provoke and to disturb in equal measure as it toys with the audience’s notions of absolute certainty. It begins with the winsome James McAvoy addressing the audience directly, his sadly earnest face a perfect picture of open honesty as he sets up… Read More »
OCULUS
There are many good things to be said for OCULUS, first and foremost of which is that is terrifying. As much a psychological consideration of the powerlessness of childhood as a ghost story of striking originality, it eschews cliché in favor of finding new ways to horrify audiences jaded with the genre. The supernatural element,… Read More »