THE SHORT VERSION: One of the best films of the year.
THE HURT LOCKER
Among the many arresting images in THE HURT LOCKER, the one that may be the best at putting the audience in the position of the American army bomb squad fighting a futile war in Iraq, is also one of the most quiet. Its during what started out as a routine mission to gather up bomb-making… Read More »
THE WORLD’S END
The Cornetto Trilogy comes to a superb conclusion with THE WORLDS END. Director Edgar Wright again teams with the regular cast of co-writer Simon Pegg as the anti-hero, and Nick Frost as the humorless corporate lawyer, along with newcomers Eddie Marsan as the grinning bunny rabbit of a car salesman, Paddy Considine as the enterperneur… Read More »
22 JUMP STREET
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 »
SWEET SIXTEEN
With ironically titled SWEET SIXTEEN Ken Loach has finally taken his considerable filmmaking talents and used them to make a movie, not a broadsheet. Instead of a screed that thumps its audience over the head with a black-and-white world view of good and evil as in CARLA’S SONG, this is a working class tragedy of… Read More »
PARTY MONSTER
For some people, reality is a choice and they would rather not. Why be an office drone when you can be a star, even if it’s only for a night and in a dress made of toilet paper? This was the thinking behind the Club Kids scene and the backdrop for one of New York’s… Read More »
THE ZODIAC (2006)
It is the stuff of gazillion urban legends, two kids making out in a car on a deserted country road only to be attacked by a psychopath. Only this is true. The psychopath was THE ZODIAC, and he started his killing spree in 1968 and, depending on whom you talk to, continued on for another… Read More »
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
Aaron Eckhart should have been a much bigger movie star than he is by now. He’s got the dazzling good looks and the killer charisma required, but after several first-rate performances in little films (THE COMPANY OF MEN, YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS), fine journeyman’s work playing second-fiddle to powerhouse female leads (Julia Roberts’ boyfriend in… Read More »
CHILDREN OF MEN
In a here-and-now where the primacy of children is given ample lip service by proponents of any and all social issues, it is refreshing, and not a little thought-provoking, to see in Alfonso Cuaron’s CHILDREN OF MEN, based on the P.D. James novel of the same name, a world in which this is actually the case.… Read More »
FAY GRIM
FAY GRIM dances through so many levels that while one viewing is sublime, several are a giddy revelation, each one more so than the last.