tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-277611002012-01-25T07:29:29.704-06:00short film reviews, criticism, and occasional musing.molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.comBlogger3061100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-85065698168654741642012-01-25T07:27:00.001-06:002012-01-25T07:29:29.715-06:00

While watching Take Shelter, I couldn’t help but feel that 2011 was the year of the highbrow apocalypse movie – though in truth, perhaps it was only this film and Melancholia that really made it seem so. Here, what begins as a portrait of Curtis, a man spinning into madness (played by none other than Michael Shannon, who could probably teach a master class in crazy at the ripe old age of 36),

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-39414330901615511192012-01-03T07:39:00.002-06:002012-01-03T07:44:09.796-06:00

For the second year running, I failed to keep track of new films watched, which makes it difficult to write a comprehensive year-end post – I find that whenever I’m asked to come up with lists, my mind draws a blank if I don’t have a cheat sheet handy. But I’ve been asked to think on this, so I will – and maybe next year I’ll actually keep my list up to date.I’ll be honest – Netflix streaming is

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-59057639699916405392012-01-03T07:34:00.002-06:002012-01-03T07:39:12.778-06:00

I’ll be honest – I’m not a huge Terrence Malick fan. I respect his artistry as a filmmaker, but I’ve never seen Badlands or The Thin Red Line, and The New World was a sour disappointment. The Tree of Life is not such a disappointment – in fact, I liked aspects of it quite a lot – but it left me wondering if Malick has a sense of humor of any sort. It’s hard to watch a movie that questions the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-9533486244482398932012-01-02T08:26:00.001-06:002012-01-02T08:29:01.280-06:00

I had the same issue with Tomas Alfredson’s new film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy that I did with John Le Carre’s novel – it’s a meticulously plotted, densely realistic world without a single character I care a bit about. The movie may suffer more from this malady than the book does, as with a running time of just over two hours, some of the tertiary characters – even some of the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-74731813282498418922011-09-19T07:55:00.001-05:002011-09-19T07:57:54.198-05:00

It’s a little odd calling a genre film like Drive “beautiful,” but there you go –it’s pure cinematic treat, unfolding with a languor you rarely see in American films of any stripe, much less the action sort. I’m sure this has been repeated ad nauseum by critics from Cannes and beyond, but Nicolas Winding Refn takes the genre, draws it out a beat or three, adds some glorious ‘80s strokes, and

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-89345971770735952982011-05-18T07:37:00.001-05:002011-05-18T07:40:04.936-05:00

Priest isn’t nearly as bad as Legion – much to its detriment, in fact. Whereas Legion was a screaming pile of awfulness, Priest is what’s left behind when you take all of the fun out of a bad movie. The mythology feels half-hearted at best, as the potentially awesome conceit of a futuristic vampire Western is executed with relentless grimness. The only way to make a film from an idea this wild is

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-76785898605567564762011-05-16T08:12:00.001-05:002011-05-16T08:14:45.417-05:00

I’m more familiar with Norse mythology than I am with the Thor comics, so I came to Kenneth Branagh’s Thor totally clean. As such, it’s an interesting construction – Branagh should be commended for packing a lot into his movie without it ever feeling overstuffed, and for doing so and still running just shy of two hours (something that’s nearly unheard of in a major action tentpole these days),

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-55041067186368781412011-05-02T08:00:00.001-05:002011-05-02T08:02:54.050-05:00

Far-flung sequels don’t get much more on-point than Fast Five. Where Fast & Furious failed by jamming in everything under the sun (and still managing to be entirely boring – I fell asleep in the final 15 minutes), Five succeeds by paring things down to the basics. It’s more like F. Gary Gray’s The Italian Job than any of the prior films in the franchise, much to its benefit. Despite visits from

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-23759452929635329092011-03-07T07:25:00.001-06:002011-03-07T07:27:29.142-06:00

It didn’t take very long to pinpoint what bothered me about The Fighter. It’s David O. Russell’s first real foray out of black comedy – even Three Kings was funnier than it was dramatic, and its late-game stab at pathos always rang a little false – and the misanthropy he brings to the screen is out of sync with a film about a working-class loser made good. Russell does a fine, if somewhat rote,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-38943084158194793752011-01-21T07:08:00.002-06:002011-01-21T07:10:49.695-06:00

Get Him to the Greek is both too long and too short. Fifteen minutes shy of two hours, the comedy overstays its welcome and its thin premise, but what’s more bothersome is that it does so while simultaneously leaving out elements that would make the emotional notes hit harder – we never see Aldous Snow with his son before the midway point; we hear only one of his songs before the grand finale

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-55878738307373707212011-01-18T07:20:00.002-06:002011-01-18T07:23:46.421-06:00

Yep – I saw it. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Ron Perlman and Nic Cage’s ever-astounding wigs. (And this one’s a doozy – the best way to describe it, at least at first sight, is something akin to shoulder-length blonde dreadlocks.)Season of the Witch is terrible, but it also commits that cardinal sin of many terrible movies – it’s boring. After a pretty hilarious Crusades montage, the action

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-30697187176340879232011-01-12T07:23:00.001-06:002011-01-12T07:25:35.742-06:00

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Micmacs is like Ocean’s Eleven goes twee. Call them the Whimsical Eight. Scarred (literally) in childhood and adulthood by the products of two arms manufacturers, Bazil (Dany Boon) and his wacky crew of junkyard misfits plan an elaborate scheme of revenge. And it’s Jeunet’s trademark wackiness that is the main problem in Micmacs, as it never syncs with the subject of

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-19546017850608768352011-01-07T07:52:00.002-06:002011-01-07T07:55:59.970-06:00

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a British costume drama – my first favorite film was A Room With a View - but with that disclosure made, The King’s Speech is an excellent film, with terrific performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. Though occasionally drifting towards melodrama, it always reins itself in before getting too carried away, helped by the performances as much as by the spare

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-67225589857981175692011-01-05T07:44:00.001-06:002011-01-05T07:46:53.101-06:00

I know it’s unfair to compare a movie to its source novel too much. So I’ll start off with what I think the film version of Winter’s Bone got right – the casting, for starters, is pretty spot-on. Jennifer Laurence is every bit as strong as she’s been touted as Ozark tough-girl Rhee Dolly, and John Hawkes is terrific as her meth-aggro uncle, Teardrop. The movie also feels right – the visuals,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-47142028854730467442010-12-30T07:28:00.002-06:002010-12-30T07:31:05.586-06:00

Possibly the best evil Santa film I’ve seen, and definitely one of the better films, period, that I’ve seen this year, Rare Exports is a delightfully nasty little package of holiday treats. Clocking in at a brief 84 minutes, it keeps the action moving briskly along, never wearing out its high-concept welcome. The conceit? Santa is real, and he’s real mean. Instead of the holly, jolly fat man most

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-42935588323937920252010-12-28T07:52:00.001-06:002010-12-28T07:55:02.384-06:00

I am an unabashed Coen fan, even if I’m not a completist (speak to me not of The Ladykillers, for not even J.K. Simmons can entice me). They are almost unrivaled in contemporary American cinema for their attention to detail when evoking a particular time and place – and while this talent works to the benefit of True Grit, I can’t help but wonder if it doesn’t hold the film back a bit, too.

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-45063136383908900822010-12-06T07:42:00.001-06:002010-12-06T07:46:19.939-06:00

Knight & Day is a lot of things – a throwback romance-action film, an opportunity for Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz to show off their dental work, a chance for Paul Dano to reflect on the poor career choices he’s made since There Will Be Blood – but did it have to be so creepy, too? Here’s the thing that got under my skin – a major plot device in Knight & Day has Cruise’s rogue spy knocking Diaz’s

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-1512207254331620192010-11-30T07:31:00.001-06:002010-11-30T07:33:54.248-06:00

What the hell is all of this plot doing in my Dwayne Johnson movie? Get with the program, folks – people don’t drag themselves out of the house on a chilly Thanksgiving day to watch a couple of guys wrestle with existential crises. They do it so that they can see the Rock blow a whole bunch of holes in a whole bunch of people. Thankfully, Faster isn’t entirely devoid of this type of action, and,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-86304650165314292422010-10-25T07:39:00.001-05:002010-10-25T07:41:38.839-05:00

I’m beginning to wonder if Paul Bettany fired his agent some time ago in favor of taking career advice from his personal trainer. Because I’m having an honestly difficult time imagining anyone else who might have benefitted from Legion. Either that, or Bettany and director Scott Charles Stewart (both also involved in the upcoming Priest) have gotten religion in a really odd way – one that

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-44770978342008835662010-10-20T07:31:00.002-05:002010-10-20T07:34:42.895-05:00

Sometimes I like to see films without any prior knowledge of the story. When picking out screenings for this year’s CIFF, I saw that Ricardo Darin (9 Queens, The Aura) was starring in a new Argentine film, and I was pretty much sold on the spot. I’m a fan of Darin’s – his hangdog face belies a menace that is regularly put to good use, Carancho being no exception. In it, Darin plays Sosa, an

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-80191473777940508242010-10-12T07:17:00.002-05:002010-10-12T07:21:04.472-05:00

My one issue with Abbas Kiarostami’s beautiful Certified Copy is that I became so engaged with the “are they/aren’t they” mystery that I didn’t get as emotionally invested in the characters as I feel I should have been. It’s such a delicate balance, because the two elements needed to constantly feed one another in order for Copy to work at all. And the more I think on it, the less I consider this

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-63910136377367827952010-10-11T06:45:00.002-05:002010-10-11T06:58:19.539-05:00

Roger Ebert loves The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. And he hates the recent remake of I Spit on Your Grave (he’s not too fond of the original, either). In his review of Grave, he condemns the revenge narrative for being nasty and exploitative, lingering on the violation of the central female character as much, if not more than, as on the ways in which she later exacts revenge on her violators.But

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-11309851107647380212010-10-11T06:43:00.001-05:002010-10-11T06:45:50.702-05:00

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is the first of director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films I’ve seen, though I have Tropical Malady at home right now. (For about a month now. And it’s the second time I’ve had it.) I’m no stranger to atmospheric, challenging mood pieces, but it’s hard to know exactly what to think about Uncle Boonmee, even a few hours later. Perhaps a few days or a

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-21559812853786524462010-10-07T07:25:00.002-05:002010-10-07T07:35:53.777-05:00

The Social Network, like Zodiac before it (forgive me for skipping The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but I just couldn’t get past those sweepingly Epic-with-a-capital-E trailers), is a film that is ostensibly about real people, but which is curiously devoid of real feeling. It’s a bloodless film, full of bluster but little passion. The razor-sharp script by Aaron Sorkin might actually

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-62935018232813810042010-09-08T07:47:00.002-05:002010-09-08T07:50:23.921-05:00

Bronson is director Nicholas Winding Refn’s semi-biopic about Michael Peterson/Charlie Bronson, the United Kingdom’s most notorious prison inmate. With the exception of about four months here and there, Bronson has been locked up his entire adult life, moved more than 100 times (including in and out of maximum security asylums for the criminally insane), and is currently serving out a life

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-73413906910889451932010-08-31T07:22:00.001-05:002010-08-31T07:25:06.921-05:00

When you’ve successfully transformed Benicio Del Toro into a gaping, charisma-sucking hole in the middle of your film, you’ve pretty much failed in your job as director. It pains me to say this, but the Hollywood actor who seems the most natural choice to portray a raging beast-man is an abject flop – instead of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or Sin City-style Benicio, we get 21 Grams-esque

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-76679705289488402672010-08-31T07:21:00.001-05:002010-08-31T07:22:33.062-05:00

I would have killed to be in on the pitch meeting for this movie, so as to be among the first to hear Johnny(ie)s Hallyday and To mentioned together in the same sentence. The latest micro-release Stateside for the Hong Kong action guru pairs him with the aging French pop star, as the latter blasts his way through Macau and Hong Kong on a mission of – you guessed it – revenge, alongside some of To

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-31207130316187740592010-07-29T07:23:00.001-05:002010-07-29T07:25:21.297-05:00

How do you make an action film about the end of the world mind-numbingly boring? Let’s ask Roland Emmerich!First off, it’s extremely important that your movie be as long as possible. Two hours isn’t going to cut it – you need at least two and a half hours, especially so that you can slow things down to a crawl at the point where a more reasonable disaster movie would be rolling the credits or

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-11716398952547082252010-07-27T07:36:00.001-05:002010-07-27T07:38:36.346-05:00

In limited U.S. release for about a month now, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right is already being touted as a potential awards-season frontrunner. And in a year as bleak for U.S. films as 2010 has thus far proven to be, I wouldn’t really be surprised if this prediction turns out true, especially given some exceedingly solid turns from Annette Bening (who I didn’t know I missed until now -

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-49116023762676443202010-07-23T07:19:00.002-05:002010-07-23T07:25:35.674-05:00

Maybe I just have Leo’s crazy dead wife fatigue (Shutter Island, anyone?), but Inception felt to me like a whole lot of wasted energy. Cool-looking and generally fun wasted energy, but apart from the main character’s aforementioned personal issues, Inception really is much ado about nothing – there is no central crisis for anyone but him. The mechanism of the entire plot hinges on whether or not

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-78766400382158398202010-07-16T07:36:00.001-05:002010-07-16T07:38:28.184-05:00

Adrien Brody may be the glummest action hero in the history of the genre (no, Alain Delon doesn’t count). With his hangdog eyes, Christian Bale Batman growl and ridiculous abs, there’s not a lot about Brody’s anti-hero hero that exactly makes sense, but then . . . . this is Predators. Who the fuck cares? Let’s see some folks get disemboweled real good.One of my gripes about Predators, which,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-44572965474183662472010-07-16T07:34:00.001-05:002010-07-16T07:36:03.503-05:00

“I’ve had it”, announced the man sitting behind me as Dogtooth unspooled its final minutes. And while the film still had me firmly in its grasp, it’s obvious that this is one that will divide audiences, most likely from the outset. Three grown siblings live in a house together with their parents, a middle-aged couple who have taken exacting care to separate their children from the outside world,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-18960985586494944152010-07-07T07:49:00.002-05:002010-07-07T07:52:43.354-05:00

There are some sick, sick puppies in Sweden. There’s a lot to admire in Niels Arden Oplev’s adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s book (which I have not read) – slick plotting, strong acting, and generally captivating filmmaking – but in service of what? Anti-heroine Lisbeth Salander (an excellent Noomi Rapace) seems to be followed by trauma wherever she goes. If I’d led a life like hers, I’d be behind

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-16735775721434234792010-06-25T06:44:00.001-05:002010-06-25T06:46:05.111-05:00

Provided that loud noises don’t bother you, The A-Team is pretty much the perfect movie to watch the day after macerating your brain with alcohol. It’s less clever than it thinks it is by half, but it still has its charms – absurdly over-the-top action setpieces among them, and a cast that’s game for pretty much anything. Hell, even Rampage Jackson grew on me, though I was disappointed by how

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-32176861898248391372010-06-25T06:42:00.001-05:002010-06-25T06:44:25.256-05:00

Worst. Scientists. Ever. I quite like Sarah Polley, and I will admit to once having had a soft spot for Adrien Brody, but neither is remotely actor enough to make their thoroughly unlikeable characters the least bit redeeming. A couple of biochemists who are also a couple (though their relationship and attraction to one another remain as much of a mystery as their scientific/medical code of

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-37642506496668940822010-04-13T07:31:00.001-05:002010-04-13T07:33:44.526-05:00

The more I see of Richard' Kelly's post-Donnie Darko work, the more his first film seems like a fluke. Not that The Box is the hot mess that Southland Tales was (and not that Darko was great genius), but the farther out Box spins, the more it falls apart, as Kelly grasps at straws that just aren't there.Based on Richard Matheson's "Button, Button" short story, Kelly takes a simple moralistic

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-3963657272177365192010-04-06T07:48:00.002-05:002010-04-06T07:51:30.453-05:00

It's hard to know what to make of Werner Herzog's The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Is it a send-up of cop films? (Apparently not, as Herzog claims he's never seen one. Though that would actually explain a lot.) Is it a farce? A flat-out comedy? Is Herzog just giving the finger to Abel Ferrara? To paraphrase Nic Cage - what the FUCK is going on here?So loosely based on the idea of

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-78455689432467243372010-04-06T07:45:00.002-05:002010-04-06T07:48:16.711-05:00

For one reason or another, I feel like I've been reading a fair amount about The Frighteners and how charming it is (I think someone over at the A.V. Club is a big fan). Liking Peter Jackson's pre-Lord of the Rings work, I figured I'd check it out. And . . . meh. I'm sure that nearly fifteen years ago, this particular brand of horror-comedy was pretty fresh, but I didn't find too much to

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-79225365200895424982010-03-08T07:46:00.002-06:002010-03-08T07:54:00.644-06:00

If the world of A Prophet even only somewhat related to the realities of prison life, there goes the argument for rehabilitation. Jacques Auidard's incredible film follows 19-year-old Arab prisoner Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) as he learns - quite well - the rules of the game. Incarcerated for assault after a childhood in the system, Malik is friendless, illiterate, and virtually defenseless (

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-36732223172973047462010-03-08T07:45:00.000-06:002010-03-08T07:46:22.316-06:00

In the various traditions of documentary filmmaking, the last category that The Cove would fit into is the "objective". (Not that you'd really expect it be, seeing that it was co-financed by the Oceanic Preservation Society.) The Cove is a documentary about dolphin capture and slaughter in the small town of Taiji, Japan. The main players here are crusader Ric O'Barry, former dolphin trainer

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-68626450617900131352010-03-07T22:21:00.003-06:002010-03-07T23:01:29.373-06:00

* Way to go, Christoph Waltz. To get yourself noticed in a film THAT LOUD, you pretty much rule.* I'd like to thank the Academy for skipping the terrible medley of nominated songs.* My friend Drew and I decided yesterday that any film that makes more than $500M (let's say domestic, just to be nice) should immediately be struck from the running. At that point, just stay home and roll around in

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-73813894685642962422010-02-26T07:39:00.001-06:002010-02-26T07:42:21.235-06:00

I really wanted to like Shutter Island. And for the first hour or so, I sunk into it as glorious pulp entertainment. Then it kept going. And going. Even well after pretty much everyone in the audience should have figured out what was happening, Shutter didn't let up - like Scorsese was loath to forego the lessons in obviousness that he learned on the set of The Departed (o hai rats). I am a fan

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-64047701393327424712010-02-23T07:31:00.001-06:002010-02-23T07:33:52.388-06:00

Coming into Passing Strange, it's important to know that it's not a narrative film - it's the Spike Lee's filmed version of a Broadway musical, a movie that breaks the narrative flow to the point that it occasionally crosses the line into documentary. The musical itself is musician Stew's semi-autobiographical picaresque, the accounting of a young black man's journey from 1970s Los Angeles

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-5300570352106414132010-02-23T07:28:00.002-06:002010-02-23T07:31:08.925-06:00

I'm apparently on something of a Neveldine/Taylor (seriously, guys?) streak. After finally seeing Crank earlier this week, I decided to queue up Gamer on the recollection that it wasn't supposed to be quite as stupid as it seems on the surface. Aaaaand . . . entertaining, yes. Especially in the first half. But, unlike Crank, the duo doesn't give itself a finite playground upon which to wreak its

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-47947465108004717452010-02-12T08:07:00.001-06:002010-02-12T08:09:31.402-06:00

A word of warning - no matter how much you enjoy expressionistic films populated by repressed Germans, I would not recommend watching back-to-back Rainer Werner Fassbinder films, especially if you're a Fassbinder newbie like me. (I had to watch The Core to normalize a bit. No, I am not kidding. (And that movie is amazing.)) That said, I think I'm in love. About halfway through Ali: Fear Eats the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-85034008440016466722010-02-12T08:05:00.001-06:002010-02-12T08:07:43.007-06:00

A Perfect Getaway is a pretty enjoyable little action b-flick, especially if you choose not to think about it too hard. The twists are pretty predictable, but it's generally fun getting there, at least until director David Twohy (whose best film remains Pitch Black, although I vaguely remember Below being somewhat interesting) trots out a bit too much insight in the third act. Can't psychos just

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-82454587471488559732010-01-27T07:43:00.001-06:002010-01-27T07:48:16.133-06:00

I wouldn't say that Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon starts off innocently - far from it - but apart from some of the typical long takes and following shots, it lulls you into something of a disarmed state until about midway through, when certain scenes make it evident exactly who is behind the camera. Despite one storyline that is far sweeter, and seemingly genuinely so, than anything I've seen

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-56494724389449655632010-01-26T07:29:00.001-06:002010-01-26T07:32:03.057-06:00

Tom Ford's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's novel, A Single Man, is quite obviously a labor of love. All of the tiny visual details resonate, from the elaborate female hairstyles of the early '60s, to the precise cut of the main character's suit, to the light shining off a bare torso or faintly illuminating the downy hair on a young girl's legs. It is sometimes these things, Ford seems to

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-81865202711728922782010-01-11T08:06:00.001-06:002010-01-11T08:06:37.966-06:00

Let's all watch as a pretty lady has her spirit broken! Yay!

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-2049055269687319752010-01-11T08:02:00.003-06:002010-01-11T08:07:44.131-06:00

It's sad that the only thing that gets me to a Terry Gilliam film these days is a rare (well, somewhat rare - he's also apparently in The Book of Eli, also coming out this month) performance by Tom Waits. I used to love Gilliam, and some of his films - Brazil in particular - will always be among my favorites. But over the last fifteen years or so, ever since the questionable success of Fear and

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-23747935172376771842010-01-08T07:33:00.001-06:002010-01-08T07:34:16.535-06:00

Michael Sheen is kind of awesome. Going directly from Frost/Nixon to the incredibly inessential Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is quite the jump, even if they were filmed in reverse order. Does he have a really big mortgage? Need an excuse to go to the gym? Get really bored playing Tony Blair? (Three times and counting.) Or maybe he just has a great sense of humor?I'm not entirely sure how Rise

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-86523296014792328722010-01-08T07:31:00.000-06:002010-01-08T07:32:59.598-06:00

Released only a year apart, Blue Spring is nearly the perfect companion piece to Battle Royale - if high-schoolers are this fucked up, why not ship them to an island and let them duke it out to the finish? Blue Spring takes place in the final days of the school year, as a group of senior boys try to figure out what they'll do after (or, more likely, if) they graduate. The constant question - work

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-4696532582826110602010-01-04T07:42:00.001-06:002010-01-04T07:45:28.819-06:00

Like a Philip K. Dick story, Sleep Dealer is clumsily written and structurally unsound, but rife with fascinating ideas. A science fiction narrative blended with harsh social critique, Sleep Dealer takes place in the not-too-distant future, in a Mexico where migrant workers can now plug into a machine in order to take menial jobs in America, instead of physically crossing the border. The tech is

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-32728792163220034022010-01-04T07:40:00.001-06:002010-01-04T07:42:11.926-06:00

Police, Adjective follows detective Cristi (Dragos Bucur) as he tails three suspects in a drugs case over the course of several days. And that's pretty much it - Christi tails. He waits, half hidden behind structures, he smokes cigarettes, and occasionally he winds his way through the maddening bureaucracy of his police precinct, trying to dig up more evidence in his case. One small detail - the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-52662245442350818132009-12-30T10:02:00.002-06:002009-12-30T10:08:55.392-06:00

2009 was kind of mediocre as far as movies were concerned – I wasn’t terribly impressed by very many theatrical releases, plus I was in something of a lull myself. I spent far more time this year catching up on long-dead television and keeping up with a surprisingly interesting batch of newer shows, including Fringe, Dollhouse, and Community. But the time has come to write up my annual recap of

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-5111232247581055862009-12-21T08:04:00.002-06:002009-12-21T08:27:11.520-06:00

I don't know what it is about filmmakers like James Cameron and George Lucas, who match incredible visual sensibilities with a teenage boy's understanding of story and character. But at least we can be thankful for small favors - as bad as Avatar is, and it is quite bad, at least there's no Jar-Jar Binks. What there is, however, is over two and a half hours of Cameron playing with shiny toys,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-4275514461479066452009-10-12T08:34:00.001-05:002009-10-12T08:36:01.815-05:00

You know an action movie is crap when you fall asleep during the climatic fight scene. Seriously, for boasting a mostly kick-ass cast [Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Taylor Kitsch – the less said about Will.i.am, the better – and Ryan Reynolds (though it was apparently too costly to use him in more than one scene)], Wolverine is totally uninspired, and after excessive jaw-clenching

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-51610206918288835872009-10-12T08:30:00.002-05:002009-10-12T08:34:26.606-05:00

Though less of an outright entertainment than The Host, Mother may be Bong Joon-Ho’s most accomplished film to date, focusing on the question of whether or not the truth is always good for us. A middle-aged shopkeeper’s (the amazing Kim Hye-Ja) mentally disabled son is arrested for a bizarre murder, and though the cops and community are convinced he’s guilty, she goes on a crusade to prove his

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-28605944852753855532009-10-07T08:05:00.001-05:002009-10-07T08:07:50.398-05:00

Whip It isn’t a great movie. In a lot of ways, it isn’t even a terribly good one. It’s utterly predictable, and features pretty shaky direction along with some dubious roller derby action. But despite some of the sketchy assertions director Drew Barrymore has made to the press about her cast, I think it actually kicks a fair amount of ass that this is the project she chose for her directorial

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-45089734922228441942009-10-05T08:01:00.001-05:002009-10-05T08:03:20.641-05:00

Extract has all the hallmarks of your typical Mike Judge satire, like Office Space and Idiocracy, with one important exception – it’s not remotely funny. The movie is completely flat, with lazy performances and even lazier writing and directing. Even J.K. Simmons can’t evoke a laugh, which is frankly just criminal. And Judge’s late-game cameo is insultingly overdone. It’s a shame that this wasn’t

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-22605143278653809162009-10-05T08:00:00.001-05:002009-10-05T08:01:55.610-05:00

There’s a lot I liked about Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Retribution, but unfortunately, I didn’t find it very creepy or scary. There are a couple of shots that are quite eerie, but for an ostensible J-Horror film, it’s not big on fright. As usual with Kurosawa’s films, it’s more about atmosphere. Also as usual, it feels like Kurosawa is only giving us three-fourths of the story, so that a lot of ends are

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-56615837547376095122009-10-05T07:58:00.001-05:002009-10-05T08:00:36.614-05:00

Of all the films that feature the gratuitous fun of zombie violence, as opposed to the existential horror of humanity turning upon itself, Zombieland is up there. In part, this is because our heroes, with a few small exceptions, didn’t have much use for humanity in the first place. It’s a lot easier to wail on zombies with impunity when you’re pretty sure you wouldn’t have liked them any better

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-51800838644152257042009-09-22T08:02:00.001-05:002009-09-22T08:02:51.648-05:00

I’ve seen Tilda Swinton in a good number of movies, but I’ve never seen her like she is in Julia. It’s a fantastic performance, even for Swinton, playing against type as a brash loose cannon of an alcoholic, a party girl who’s starting to unravel as she heads towards middle age. When an opportunity to do the wrong thing presents itself, Julia barely thinks twice before making a bad decision that,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-76489800281313824722009-09-22T08:00:00.000-05:002009-09-22T08:02:00.943-05:00

I have a hard time thinking of another film that’s as guileless and charming as Shall We Dance? Taking time off from some of his more intense work in the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shohei Imamura, Koji Yakusho plays a serious-minded salaryman who becomes entranced by ballroom dancing, a pastime he must hide from his family and co-workers, as dancing is seen as inappropriately intimate in

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-54365867368094931422009-09-22T07:58:00.000-05:002009-09-22T08:00:08.449-05:00

Zack Snyder’s Watchmen looks gorgeous – you can see every penny of its enormous budget on the screen – but it has no soul. Snyder has taken a wonderfully dense narrative and found a way to make it both an anvil festival and a pointlessly opaque translation. It screams out some of its themes while discarding others with little more than a shrug. There’s a lot of speechifying with very little

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-18088244926568006362009-09-14T07:17:00.002-05:002009-09-14T07:20:46.795-05:00

For a movie with an exclamation mark in its title, Tokyo! is pretty dour. The anthology, featuring short works by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, and Bong Joon-Ho, focuses on lost souls in the Japanese megopolis. Is it because they’re foreigners that these takes on Tokyo are so dark? Or does the city just bring out the worst in too many?The series kicks off with Gondry’s Interior Design, in which two

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-3083436603922571032009-09-10T08:08:00.000-05:002009-09-10T08:09:41.217-05:00

I haven’t been a fan of Jonathan Demme’s work over the last decade or so, but I was sucked in by the baldly emotional Rachel Getting Married. The cast is superb – I was particularly impressed by Bill Irwin, Rosemarie DeWitt and Tunde Adebimpe – and the story bounces back and forth between the happy moments leading up to a large family wedding, and the raw, more painful ones that well up from

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-86641061077071613312009-09-10T08:02:00.003-05:002009-09-10T08:08:24.956-05:00

Quentin Tarantino directs like a kid in a candy store. He’s the ultimate film nerd, and fifteen years after Pulp Fiction, it’s like he still can’t believe his luck. This exuberance has its benefits and its pitfalls. On one hand, few directors can match him for sheer energy and entertainment value. On the other, his films are often little more than individual scenes strung together, with little

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-9402141549243109612009-08-17T08:20:00.001-05:002009-08-17T08:20:53.175-05:00

Aaaaand, now I’ve seen it all. Fucking Celtic-speaking fighter jet. Avoid at all costs.

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-78252194315451315102009-08-17T08:17:00.001-05:002009-08-17T08:20:22.181-05:00

Almost more than war, The Hurt Locker is about three men and their very different ways of coping with insane amounts of stress, day after day. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) is a professional, treating war more or less like any other job. Eldridge (Brian Garaghty) shouldn’t be there at all – he’s not equipped to make the decisions he’s forced to make. For both of them, though, war is – hopefully –

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-84814949538933157762009-08-17T08:16:00.001-05:002009-08-17T08:17:55.091-05:00

Sally Hawkins really is as wonderful as everyone says in Mike Leigh’s bittersweet comedy that examines life through the eyes of a bubbly eternal optimist, and in particular what happens when Poppy (Hawkins) meets her match in a cantankerous driving instructor named Scott (a very dark Eddie Marsan). There’s been a lot written about Poppy’s nature walking a fine line between happiness and insanity,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-30209437169336423512009-07-23T07:34:00.001-05:002009-07-23T07:36:16.541-05:00

I love movies that deal with the art world. You know what happens all the time in the art world? You get introduced to a big-time gallery owner one day, take the photo she asked for later that night, then the day after you get invited to be a part of a group show. What’s with all these myths about starving artists?Oh yeah. The gore. There’s lots of it! Faces exploding everywhere! Tons of digital

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-17629047738588923262009-07-23T07:32:00.001-05:002009-07-23T07:33:30.287-05:00

I don’t have much of interest to say about Role Models except that it’s fucking hilarious. While much more conventional in story and structure than David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models still brings epic levels of profanity, child-associated wrongness, and awesome Paul Rudd. Rudd and Seann William Scott are actually a terrific duo – Scott looks like he understands only half of what’s

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-47675027690347855072009-07-16T07:53:00.001-05:002009-07-16T07:55:23.355-05:00

People talk about how bankrupt our culture has become, that these days entertainment panders to the lowest common denominator. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? gives the lie to this idea – it’s always been this way. It’s one of the most brutal films I’ve seen, up there with Day of the Locust for the most nihilistic vision of Depression-era Los Angeles, though Horses casts a wider net, condemning

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-15787938794425413992009-07-16T07:51:00.001-05:002009-07-16T07:53:23.015-05:00

I was a little surprised, but Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat is actually just as funny. Whether American audiences will embrace it quite as much is another question – I’m pretty sure that most people in the U.S. are more comfortable with their xenophobia than with their homophobia, and Brüno certainly doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to outrageous shows of sexuality. (Is there

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-40158248433496320992009-06-16T08:05:00.002-05:002009-06-16T08:08:24.661-05:00

Drag Me to Hell is easily the Raimiest Sam Raimi movie since Army of Darkness. Animated corpses! Demonic possession! Popping eyeballs! Vomiting! Laffs! As much as I enjoyed the first two of his Spider-Man movies, this is the Raimi I really love. There are so few directors who know how to scare effectively and simultaneously go for cheesy laughs, and with another decade and a half of filmmaking

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-38244629673757065652009-06-10T08:01:00.001-05:002009-06-10T08:04:20.293-05:00

Despite some of the best sight gags being featured in the trailer (I hate when that happens), The Hangover is pretty damn funny. And while Bradley Cooper brings the smarm and Ed Helms blusters amusingly, most of the film rests on the pudgy shoulders of Zach Galifianakis. I love Zach Galifianakis. I watched Out Cold because he was in it. Seriously. As awkward man-child Alan, Galifianakis toes that

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-65128634726597337762009-06-03T07:44:00.001-05:002009-06-03T07:46:56.794-05:00

I’m a fan of Rian Johnson’s Brick – in fact, it may be the most recent theatrical release that I’ve bothered to pick up on DVD – so I was disappointed by how shallow I found The Brothers Bloom to be. For all its style, its rambling about stories and storytelling, and the cheeky visual cues, I felt that Bloom was, in essence, much ado about nothing. Everyone’s playing to type, too – Mark Ruffalo

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-35028248044884239092009-06-01T07:44:00.001-05:002009-06-01T07:46:13.539-05:00

It’s been almost a week since I’ve seen Terminator: Salvation, because I just haven’t been able to summon the will to write about it. What is there to say? Why does this movie exist? Apart from the generally-accepted awesomeness of giant killer robots, there is pretty much nothing about T:S to recommend it. Even the dependable Christian Bale phones it in, probably coasting off of his Batman cred

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-28037127903074857962009-06-01T07:41:00.001-05:002009-06-01T07:44:31.642-05:00

Nick and Norah is a pretty rote exercise, a pseudo-indie teen rom-com that lazily tries to hide its pedigree under a veneer of in-the-moment music scenesterism. It’s going to feel terribly dated in about a year, and seem a relic in two. What’s worse, Nick and Norah pretty much wastes the comedic talents of its stars, Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, with a lame script and ineffectual direction. The

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-62786134807221479772009-05-18T07:50:00.001-05:002009-05-18T07:50:57.439-05:00

I’m a pretty big Robert Altman fan, but this was the first time I’d seen The Long Goodbye, one of the weirdest of his early films. Altman and Leigh Brackett take Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe out of the 1940s and plop him down in the middle of 1970s Los Angeles. In this, Marlowe could have become an obvious throwback – driving a vintage car, wearing a suit and tie, striking matches off any

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-79499877026813256932009-05-13T07:52:00.002-05:002009-05-13T07:58:36.404-05:00

If Ghost Dog didn’t make it clear, Jim Jarmusch is pretty much obsessed with Le Samourai and the other gangster noirs of Jean-Pierre Melville. The Limits of Control takes all the markers of the gangster film – the stoic protagonist (who could possibly be more stoic than Issach De Bankole? I think the man changes expression precisely twice in 116 minutes), the shady dame, the secret messages, the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-73766471791234491942009-05-11T07:58:00.002-05:002009-05-11T08:02:41.454-05:00

It doesn’t always make obvious sense why certain Netflixed movies linger on top of the T.V. console for weeks and weeks. I’m Not There is a perfect example – an unseen movie by one of my favorite directors, about one of my favorite musicians, featuring some pretty great actors. But it took me over a month to finally sit down and watch Todd Haynes’ Dylan flick. Sometimes, I don’t want a film to

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-66118639118288402912009-05-11T07:53:00.002-05:002009-05-11T07:58:42.589-05:00

I must admit that while I’m not a huge Trek fangirl, I do love pretty much anything Shatner-related, and I did watch a hell of a lot of TNG when I was young. So the idea of a J.J. Abram’s restart interested me a lot – I wasn’t particularly worried about the uber-franchise being ruined (more on that below), because I’m not terribly invested in it, and I thought that it might make for one of the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-9215288698029802842009-05-08T06:50:00.002-05:002009-05-08T06:55:31.094-05:00

Sita Sings the Blues is writer/director/producer/editor/pretty much everything else-r Nina Paley’s semi-autobiographical take on the Hindu Ramayana. It’s an audacious combination of at least five different animation styles, as Paley weaves four primary threads together – sketchily-drawn moments from her real-life break-up with husband Dave, three comical Balinese shadow puppets narrating segments

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-648442369380884182009-04-29T08:22:00.001-05:002009-04-29T08:23:57.654-05:00

Perhaps the best description I can think of for Anvil! is that it’s a cross between This is Spinal Tap and American Movie. But while there are plenty of laughs in Anvil! - some of which the subjects are probably unaware of – the movie is more about struggle and dedication, and less about laughing at talentless, self-deluded hacks. Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner, the heart and soul of the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-63504979459228822942009-04-21T07:54:00.001-05:002009-04-21T07:56:10.563-05:00

The first two-thirds of Hamlet 2 really cross that line between funny and uncomfortable. But it’s generally worth sitting through for the staging of the play itself, which is an absurdly Dadaist spectacle. Why is Laertes a cowboy? And why is he onstage with Albert Einstein, singing a song called “Raped In the Face”? It’s a pretty catchy tune, actually, though not quite so hummable as “Rock Me

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-6179738700400570242009-04-21T07:50:00.002-05:002009-04-21T07:54:03.074-05:00

Wow, so that was a big ol’ waste of time. Not that I expected greatness, but I thought it might be good to help while away a sick-day afternoon. Not so much. It’s incredibly dull, and not even the presence of some of my favorite television actors – Jon Hamm, Kyle Chandler and Robert Knepper – really made this worth the hour forty-five. And that Jaden Smith kid? Makes Keanu look like a master

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-67043381216897522192009-04-09T07:41:00.002-05:002009-04-09T07:43:32.334-05:00

A funny, often bittersweet, coming-of-age romance, Adventureland is nearly pitch-perfect, especially in its sharp script and satirical, though affectionate, take on 80’s teen culture. James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) is a newbie Oberlin grad, more interested in showing off his academic chops in poetry and philosophy than seriously considering his future. Too bad for him, his alcoholic father has

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-66094441932428938612009-04-09T07:39:00.001-05:002009-04-09T07:40:59.280-05:00

I don’t know if this is a review so much as a collection of somewhat isolated reactions.1) So now I know where The White Stripes got their name (and theme!).2) Wow. Ray Winstone was pretty cute in his youth. Who knew?3) Speaking of youth, was Laura Dern seriously THIRTEEN when she made this movie?4) Who can I get to be the Stains with me next Halloween?Anyway, it’s kind of a mess of a movie from

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-35659026750636443192009-04-06T07:45:00.001-05:002009-04-06T07:48:25.922-05:00

Admittedly, I have read all four of the Twilight books. They’re like book crack – terrible, but hard to quit once you’ve gotten started. In a perfect world, the movie version of the first book would either be entirely forgotten in the space of a few weeks, or destined for midnight screenings along the lines of Rocky Horror. It’s terrible. All of the weirdness of the book – why is Edward such a

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-33740835128954243802009-04-06T07:44:00.001-05:002009-04-06T07:45:42.301-05:00

I’ve been looking forward to Timecrimes for at least a year, maybe longer, because I kept missing it in theaters and I love time-travel fiction. Perhaps I anticipated it for too long, because I found it slight, less creative than I was hoping. It fits together rather well, but some things certainly feel contrived – why does Hector pause on the path the first time he heads up to the silo? Why does

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-67329225017090607162009-03-30T07:38:00.002-05:002009-03-30T07:43:48.886-05:00

I pretty much stopped watching new Woody Allen movies after the one-two punch of Hollywood Ending and Curse of the Jade Scorpion, both of which are terrible. Match Point was the only exception, but he seemed on surer footing with a drama than a comedy, so despite the critical acclaim around Vicky Cristina Barcelona, it took me ages to get around to it. I was prepared for disappointment, but what

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-34587884859706740392009-03-30T07:35:00.001-05:002009-03-30T07:38:48.993-05:00

Since at least Casino Royale, free running and Parkour have become pretty popular in mainstream action cinema, but their recent accessibility doesn’t diminish the awesome stunts in District B13. Luc Besson and his longtime cameraman/cinematographer Pierre Morel basically construct B13 around Parkour, casting originator David Belle and stuntman Cyril Raffaelli as a prisoner and a cop, respectively

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-432944320805434462009-03-27T07:59:00.001-05:002009-03-27T08:01:19.141-05:00

Two things right off the bat – Angelina Jolie looks amazing in a cloche, and her makeup artist should be commended for the stay-put lipstick.Other than that, Changeling felt pretty rote. I was hoping for a lot more, and though I hate to be one of those critics who nitpicks about what a writer and/or director should have done, I find myself wishing that the film hadn’t felt so broad, that its

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-74825861027937148352009-03-24T07:51:00.003-05:002009-03-24T22:45:49.385-05:00

It was perhaps both the best and worst timing to watch Synechdoche, New York the same weekend as Nightwatching. Two very opposing views of the creative process, I felt that the former ended up lacking. Why? I couldn’t help but get hung up on the females of Synechdoche (also, I think that Kaufman came up with that title mostly to screw with critics and copyeditors). They’re all so crazy. Sure, the

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-42074956818304276482009-03-24T07:47:00.001-05:002009-03-24T07:50:58.786-05:00

There are certain directors whose work, at least for me, requires a shift in perspective at the outset. John Waters is a good example – unless I’ve been on a streak, it takes me a good five to ten minutes of run time to turn my head around to his worldview, since his style of filmmaking breaks from the common so dramatically. Peter Greenaway is another obvious choice, and I haven’t seen a new

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-85137812655021480892009-03-19T07:48:00.001-05:002009-03-19T07:49:35.688-05:00

I don’t really have much to add to the general critical acclaim surrounding Gommorah - I just want to chime in to say that it really is as good as its buzz would indicate. A completely rootless and de-glamorized look at one of the most dangerous Italian mobs, Gommorah rips right out of the gate and doesn’t let up for two hours, following various characters through Mafia life – high and mostly low

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-91660760327655734352009-03-19T07:46:00.001-05:002009-03-19T07:48:22.828-05:00

Seriously, has Jason Stathem ever made a movie in which he does not drive a car? If he did, would anyone care? (Okay - In the Name of the King. I answer my own question. But maybe there's a really bitchin' cart race or something.) Anyway, Death Race is terrible, and contains disappointingly less shirt-fu than Transporter 3, but hey – Stathem drives a car, he occasionally appears topless, Joan

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27761100.post-28257597217006526262009-03-19T07:43:00.002-05:002009-03-19T07:46:22.825-05:00

For the first hour or so, I was surprised that I didn't think that Babylon A.D. was as bad as everyone had said it was. Not very exciting, sure, but the production design is gorgeous, and it’s really not too terrible, at least not until the last five minutes or so. Then it turns into the dumbest, most pointless film I’ve seen in quite some time. I don’t blame Mathieu Kassovitz for disowning it,

molly m.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11128042858091733115noreply@blogger.com0