AltWeeklies Wire
Ivan Reitman's Near-Movie is a Soap-Opera Disaster
There’s almost a movie — one with serious incest issues — hiding somewhere in writer/director Jason Reitman’s bleary attempted adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel.
James Bond’s Placeholder: Chris Pine Does the Heavy Lifting
For a no frills spy thriller, Kenneth Branagh directs a respectable rendering of Tom Clancy’s well-worn Jack Ryan superspy character.
Bee True: the documentaries of Berlin and Beyondnew
Three German-language documentaries (More Than Honey, Miles and War, and Redemption Impossible) stand out in San Francisco's annual Berlin and Beyond film festival.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Nicole Gluckstern |
01-17-2014 |
Movies
SEALS Out of Water and Facts: How a Goat Herder Handed The U.S. Military its Ass
All films are political. All film is propaganda. Knowing that Peter Berg’s seemingly straight-ahead war picture is little more than a two-hour recruitment commercial designed for the U.S. military to attract testosterone-bubbling American males more interested in the size of their biceps than in ways they might use their minds to advance their lives, is part and parcel to the film’s equation.
Birth of a Salesmannew
I know people who have run Kickstarter campaigns for a variety of worthy projects and I prefer to see the strategy work for community-based efforts initiated by people with big vision and limited resources rather than be used to subsidize an already wealthy person’s movie. But what the hell. I suppose if you can sell me the pen in your pocket, you deserve the payout.
Worcester Magazine |
Jim Keogh |
01-09-2014 |
Movies
The Sex, Drugs and Wolves of Wall Streetnew
“The Wolf of Wall Street,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, is a maniacal roller coaster of excess.
Jackson Free Press |
Jordan Sudduth |
01-09-2014 |
Movies
A Mistress to Dickens: Ralph Fiennes Does Merchant Ivory with Felicity Jones
Ralph (pronounced “rafe”) Fiennes’s second directorial venture — following his adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” — is the closest thing to a Merchant Ivory production to come along since that venerable company ceased making films.
The Good, the Bad and the Crappynew
Our intrepid critic ponders the lineup of films scheduled for 2014 release.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
01-03-2014 |
Movies
A look at favorite films of 2013new
Syracuse New Times film blogger and reviewer Mark Bialczak looks back at a year in movies.
Syracuse New Times |
Mark Bialczak |
01-03-2014 |
Movies
Invisible Shadows: The Martin Scorsese Movie That Isn’t
There is no reason to see Martin Scorsese’s latest picture. Centered around its irredeemable greed-crazed anti-hero antagonist Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), “The Wolf of Wall Street” is an oddly inert piece of capitalist voyeurism that worships at the altar of its host.
TOP-TEN FILMS OF 2013 VIDEO COLUMNnew
Whew! What a great year for cinema. Hollywood may have dropped the ball with a blockbuster summer of busts — only Gore Verbinski’s vastly underrated “Lone Ranger” left a mark — but foreign, documentary, and independent films more than picked up the slack.
Iran’s Oscar Bait: Asghar Farhadi Could Return to the Red Carpet
Asghar Farhadi’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning “A Separation,” is a melodramatic romantic mystery with dangling threads. That’s not a put-down.
Movie Madness: The Best of 2013new
The sweet sixteen, elite eight and final four.
Boise Weekly |
George Prentice |
12-27-2013 |
Movies
Staring Blank: Spike Jonze’s Intelligence is Artificial
Where Spike Jonze once soared using magical realism — albeit written by someone else — as his guide (see “Being John Malkovich”) he now flounders with a self-penned technology driven story that shrivels before your eyes.
A Family Problem: Not Your Mother’s Meryl Streep
Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play loses an hour-and-a-half from its original running time, but none of its dramatic impact in the playwright’s own screenplay adaptation.
