HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2 begins with a bang and doesn’t stop. Starting right where the last film ended, it barely has time to catch its breath, or go into florid exposition, before diving right into the final face-off between the boy, now man, wizard (Daniel Radcliffe), embodiment of all that is… Read More »
PARANOIA
PARANOIA is a flabby congealed thing that is in no way helped by lackluster direction and a derivative script. The hook is industrial espionage in the high-stakes, and even higher-egos, of hi-tech. Based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Finder, it is a morality tale with no sting, and a thriller with… Read More »
ADORE
ADORE, adapted from Doris Lessing’s novel The Grandmothers, is a compelling, dangerous meditation on the stifling nature of convention, and the fluid nature of emotional bonding when societal norms are put aside. At the center are two lifelong friends, Lil (Naomi Watts) and Roz (Robin Wright), best friends since childhood. They are not, as the… Read More »
SPIDER
David Cronenberg’s particular genius is getting inside our deepest, most primal fears, the ones that exist in the id and are impervious to any assuaging from the land of logic. Hence in RABID, Marilyn Chambers grows something suspiciously phallic in a most unexpected place, in VIDEODROME, our televisions turn on us, and in DEAD RINGERS,… Read More »
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
Finally, an adventure film for grownups. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD, based on the wildly popular Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’ Brian, is brought to vivid life with a literate script, intelligent performances, and a respect for its audience. While the story takes place during the Napoleanic Wars, the focus is… Read More »
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
I’ve never read the bestselling book, House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, but I admire the concept of it infinitely more than I admire the film of the same name that was made from it. This is a poignant tale about what the idea of home means to people, how they will… Read More »
ZODIAC (2007)
The pedestrian way to film the story of ZODIAC, the San Francisco Bay Area serial killer whose rampage extended from the late 1960s through the 1970s, would be to make a taut action thriller with snazzy directing tricks and gung-ho dialogue. Here was a psychopath who hunted people for sport and through a combination of smarts… Read More »
MEET THE ROBINSONS
One day geeks may indeed rule the world, if they don’t already, that is, and when they do, we could do worse that the scenario presented in MEET THE ROBINSONS. Much worse. Based on the book, “A Day with the Robinsons” by William Joyce, this gentle tale of family lost and found is a wild… Read More »
MEET THE ROBINSONS — DVD
MEET THE ROBINSONS is a whiz-bang terrific flight of fancy that is a paean to both the creative impulse that drives inventors, and the boundless optimism that keeps them going in the face of long odds and the skepticism of their less imaginative fellow creatures. Thinking so far outside the box that its very existence… Read More »
ATONEMENT
ATONEMENT is as close to perfection as mere mortals can aspire to. This translation to the screen of the Booker Prize-winning novel by Ian McEwan flawlessly captures the complex and powerful play of emotions that propel the story while annotating it with a visual component that amplifies rather than distracts. The plot hinges on what… Read More »
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