AltWeeklies Wire
Straight Man — Funny Man — Both Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon Take Another Bath Together
You couldn’t pick two more entertaining companions to go with on a filmic road trip in Italy than Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.
Mixing Menus: Overdo Foodie Movie Arrives With the Hallström Seal
The foodie-romance genre has been oddly absent from American cinema lately. It’s been seven long years since “Ratatouille” (2007) reminded audiences about their taste buds.
Prolific But Redundant — Woody’s Same Old Song and Dance
Woody Allen has mastered the art of making the same trivial film over and over again.
Skin Game: Post-9/11 & Pre-Snowden Spy Thriller Speaks German
Anton Corbjin’s unconventional post-9/11 spy thriller (based on a 2008 John le Carré novel) remains an engaging experience despite numerous aspects that weigh it down.
Crossed Thumbs: Steve James’s Flawed Roger Ebert Documentary
Documentarian Steve James — the filmmaker responsible for “Hoop Dreams,” one of the 20th century’s most significant additions to the genre — arrived at his lauded film-critic subject both too early and late to properly tell the story of a man whose prickly personality remains guarded.
Splendid Isolation: Bernardo Bertolucci Offers Another Cinematic Gift
Bernardo Bertolucci’s long awaited return to filmmaking after a decade-long absence is a beautifully photographed and provocative coming-of-age drama in the vein of Bertolucci’s “La Luna” and his last film “The Dreamers.”
Sophomore Slump: Not Even Robert Pattinson Can Save “The Rover”
Director/co-writer David Michôd suffers a sophomore slump in this disappointing follow-up to his well-crafted debut “Animal Kingdom” (2010).
Kinky Boots: Roman Polanski Gives Takes Venus All The Way
Roman Polanski’s 20th film is an exquisite deconstructionist articulation of a quicksilver sadomasochistic tug-of-war between a middle-aged theater director and an enigmatic actress auditioning for a role in his upcoming play “Venus in Furs.” She just might be Venus incarnate.
Bromancing With Guns Out: Hollywood Gutter Spits Up Another Load of Debris
Everything about the concept of a “Jump Street” comedy franchise reeks of Hollywood’s perpetual endeavor to repackage a formula and call it a movie. 2014 has been an abysmal year for Hollywood movies — bottom-line grosses notwithstanding — and the near future looks just as bleak.
Time-Warped Nightmare Profusion: Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt Gets Stuck
All high-concept, but affording only minimal entertainment reward by way of its stale ghost-in-the-machine storyline, “Edge of Tomorrow” is the “Groundhog Day” of sci-fi movies.
Loose With Math: Seth MacFarlane’s Comedy: 50 Laughs From 100 Tries
Of the hundred or so gags, jokes, and one-liners that comic genius Seth MacFarlane throws at the wall over the course of his bawdy and sometimes grotesque western comedy, nearly half of them connect with a funny bone.
Pure Cinema: Alejandro Jodorowsky Returns
After a 23 year hiatus from making feature films — his last was “The Rainbow Thief,” a work-for-hire film from 1990 starring Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif that he disowned after it was completed — Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky makes a striking return to filmmaking.
Spectacular Failure Hollywood Tumbles Into the Ocean
Further confirmation that no one in Hollywood knows how to tell a story on film anymore, “Godzilla” starts out promising enough before slipping into a snooze-fest by the end of its first act.
Merchant Ivory Present: Amma Asante Breaks Through
However fated to be inexorably linked to “12 Years a Slave” — by mere virtue of its slave-related subplot — “Belle” is an accomplished period drama firmly in line with the top-drawer production values and exquisite performances found in Merchant Ivory’s celebrated films.
Tags: Belle, Amma Asante
D.O.A. —COLE SMITHEY'S CLASSIC CINEMA
[VIDEO ESSAY] Cinema doesn't get much more tightly wound than the anxious premise for Rudolph Maté’s film noir standard-bearer.
