The somnambulant denizens of Roy Andersonns YOU, THE LIVING (DU LEVANDE) inhabit a dreary world that barely has color and, for the living of the title, barely any present tense. Theirs is a placidity that is barely two steps from torpor, even in the face of emotion, even in the face of death. The several… Read More »
SMOKIN’ ACES
Somewhere in Joe Carnahan’s SMOKIN’ ACES there is a really good film trying desperately to get out. Several actually. And therein lays the problem. Dashing blithely as he does through several different genres Carnahan shows moxie and a genuine flair for each one: black comedy, gut-wrenching drama, farcical silliness, and a deeply affecting morality tale. It’s… Read More »
BECAUSE I SAID SO
To judge from the level of insight into the mother-daughter dynamic and/or the relative proficiency in turning out a decent script, the women who co-wrote BECAUSE I SAID SO might have been raised by iguanas. This sad spectacle degrades everyone participating in it, including the audience hornswaggled into thinking that it was going to get some… Read More »
THE MESSENGERS
There is much to be said for letting a horror film build slowly. The audience moves from the everyday world into one where the unknown lurks with intentions that seem anything but friendly. And so it is with THE MESSENGERS, the latest from the Pang Brothers, a duo that can make an empty room seem like the maw of hell using little… Read More »
CHINA BLUE
Micha Peled uses a tried-and-true device in his documentary, CHINA BLUE, contrasting those at the top of the food chain, in this case the Chinese new economy, with those at the top. Not only does he use this method with startling effectiveness, it may well have been the only way to bring home to audiences in… Read More »
MUSIC AND LYRICS
There’s nothing wrong with a fluffy film that doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a pleasant way to pass the time. Executed well, it can offer a welcome break from the mundane and such is MUSIC AND LYRICS. Delicately spun and deftly acted, it’s a harmless trifle that amuses and sometimes delights. Hugh Grant is Alex,… Read More »
BREACH
In a moment of supreme and unintentional irony, Robert Hanssen, the quarry in BREACH, tells his assistant, Eric O’Neill, who doesn’t know yet what his real assignment concerning Hanssen is, that he was never interested in making headlines, only history. Of course, they will shortly be making both, but neither of them is aware of that yet.… Read More »
GHOST RIDER
GHOST RIDER is the first guilty pleasure of 2007. Driven along strictly by the personalities involved, never surrendering to an internal logic that might slow things down to bring them back to earth, it barrels along a dicey path between camp and melodrama and rises above them both while never for a moment demanding to be… Read More »
THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA
THE BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA is an exquisite children’s film marketed at older kids, and thereby in danger of losing the adult demographic, an audience that would love it as much, if not more, than those kids. Though it directly addresses the darker side of being a kid, bullies, parents who aren’t perfect, it also speaks… Read More »
GRAY MATTERS
GRAY MATTERS, alas, doesn’t. At least not when it comes to making a comedy about the heartbreak of love. It is, rather, a collection of fragments of ideas that fail to coalesce in any meaningful way. The result is dull, contrived, obvious, and at 96 minutes, seemingly endless. Heather Graham and Thomas Cavanagh play Sam… Read More »
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