The true test of a great film is whether or not it is able to affect you as deeply the tenth time you see as it did the first time. WALL-E does. When WALL-E, the eponymous robot hero of his own Pixar feature, first takes the hand, or robot facsimile of same, of his robot lady… 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 »
GRAVITY
Alfonso Cuarons GRAVITY is a masterpiece of both action and psychology. It is a film that sends its audience home with many things to ponder, and many lessons learned. It also sends that audience home with a whole new appreciation of air, and Im not sure thats an accident. So abundant here on the surface… Read More »
THE MAZE RUNNER
THE MAZERUNNER, based on the best-selling young-adult novel by James Dashner, makes a satisfying transition to the big screen. If some of the characters are a bit underwritten, never fear, there is a sequel built in to the storytelling with the promise of more depth. As for the film at hand, its thumping good adventure… 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 »
SUNSHINE
With SUNSHINE, Danny Boyle once again switches film genres with a masterly touch. Having explored gritty realism with TRAINSPOTTING, social satire with SHALLOW GRAVE, whimsical fantasy with MILLIONS, and apocalyptic horror with 28 DAYS LATER, he has moved on to science fiction, albeit science fiction that also functions as a white-knuckle thriller. For all the… Read More »
THE INVASION
The original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was the product of a particular time, place, and mentality. Those would be the 50s, the United States, and the paranoia rampant at the time over the Communist Menace. Or the 50s, the United States, and the suffocation of conformity. Either way, it was a potent message at… Read More »
COHERENCE
Theoretical physics made manifest along with the far less predictable, not to mention more volatile, laws of attraction coalesce in COHERENCE, one of the best science fiction films of the year. It is a ghost story without ectoplasm, and a horror film in which the monsters are people unaware that their dark side is dominant.… Read More »
AUTOMATA
AUTOMATA is a smooth jazz riff of a film noir that covers familiar territory with an intriguing twist, and a novel brand of hopeful melancholy. Its a melancholy time, here in the near future as the sun slowly kills off what is left of humankind. Its a time of huddled masses doubling-down in cities that… Read More »
Andrew Niccol on Creating SIMONE
In S1M0NE, Andrew Niccol (GATTACA, THE TRUMAN SHOW) presents an intriguing and, for SAG members, a somewhat disturbing glimpse of what the future of entertainment might be. In it, a computer-generated actress becomes a pop-culture sensation for a public that doesn’t know that she’s a collection of pixels. What that says about reality and perception is something worth… Read More »