CHARLIE ST. CLOUD is a middling, innocuous film, rife with woozy golden sunlight and swelling syrupy music invoked to create the emotions that the film itself fails to ignite. For all the distraught characters, the film itself deftly sidesteps any attempts to explore the further reaches of passions, of romance or of grief, instead opting for… Read More »
THE OTHER GUYS
A rambling script that never quite takes the aim it meant to at the rarified world of high finance proves little impediment to THE OTHER GUYS, an uneven comedy redeemed by the inspired casting of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as cops with nothing in common paired up on a career-making case. Forget the brief,… Read More »
ANIMAL KINGDOM
ANIMAL KINGDOM is a devastatingly powerful film with a brilliant performance from newcomer James Frecheville as J, a 17-year-old set adrift between a criminal family that he barely knows, and a legal system that until then has done a spectacular job of failing him. It begins with the camera drifting across two dead souls, the… Read More »
ANIMAL KINGDOM
ANIMAL KINGDOM is a devastatingly powerful film with a brilliant performance from newcomer James Frecheville as J, a 17-year-old set adrift between a criminal family that he barely knows, and a legal system that until then has done a spectacular job of failing him. It begins with the camera drifting across two dead souls, the… 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 »
EAT PRAY LOVE
EAT PRAY LOVE is a glossy travelogue of a flick, full of stereotypes and caricatures providing a colorful backdrop to Julia Roberts’ glamour lighting. Based on the book of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert, it is the personal journey towards inner happiness taken by Liz (Julie Roberts) as she learns the lessons of the… Read More »
THE EXPENDABLES
Its comforting to know after experiencing THE EXPENDABLES that Sylvester Stallone will once again find himself on the list of Razzie nominees for 2010, and because he is the director, co-writer, and co-star, it will be in multiple categories. It doesnt get back the time spent watching this generic action flick, but it does provide… Read More »
NANNY MCHPHEE RETURNS
Its as though Emma Thompson had a backlog of story ideas and wanted to use them all at once with NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS. The less than magical sequel to her enchanting NANNY MCPHEE is at once a story of British stiff upper lips during the Blitz, a bizarrely cartoonish tale of a gambler without the… Read More »
THE SWITCH
THE SWITCH, based on the short story Baster by Jeffrey Eugenides, is a quiet comedy that is also an introspective mood piece about Wally (Jason Bateman) an inadvertently funny, introspective and somewhat moody man. Speaking to a particular pocket of time, the first decade of the 21st century, and a particular place, New York City,… Read More »
BURIED
It would be easy, and a huge mistake, to dismiss BURIED as a stunt film. Sure, Ryan Reynolds spends the entire 94 minutes of the running time buried underground in a box, but such is the imaginative take on the subject by screenwriter Chris Sparling and director Roderigo Cortes, that the struggle of one confined… Read More »