AltWeeklies Wire
The Grand Budapest Hotel may not be Wes Anderson at his deepestnew
As fascinating — and maddening — as it can be watching the arguments that emerge between the fans and detractors of any given filmmaker, it can be almost more fascinating watching fans argue amongst themselves.
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
03-19-2014 |
Reviews
Twelve Years a Slave tells the story of one man's abduction into slaverynew
Uncomfortable as it may be, McQueen skips the history lesson and achieves a visceral experience that will surely be known as the definitive moral rendering of an era that should only be recalled with remorse and shame.
Charleston City Paper |
Tom Meek |
11-07-2013 |
Reviews
Killing Them Softly is a hitman allegory about the Great Recessionnew
Killing Them Softly, the new crime caper thriller from writer/director Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford), is set in 2008, during the height of the panic over the U.S. financial collapse and the run-up to Barack Obama's election. I mention this because you might miss that crucial bit of subtext if you're not paying close attention to the excerpts from Obama's election-night speech that are included during the jaggedly edited opening sequence. Or during the centerpiece heist sequence. Or five minutes later when someone has the car radio on. Or pretty much every time anyone in this movie is listening to a radio or watching a television.
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
11-28-2012 |
Reviews
Tags: Killing Them Softly
Ang Lee's Life of Pi is more of a spectacle than a storynew
The credits introduce us to the title character's lush home, an Indian zoo run by his family. His mother is a spiritualist, while his father preaches the importance of science and tough love.
Charleston City Paper |
Jake Mulligan |
11-21-2012 |
Reviews
Spielberg's Lincoln humanizes the legendary presidentnew
When you hear that Steven Spielberg directed an Abraham Lincoln biopic, you get an image in your head of what it must look like: overtly sentimental, grand in scale, and more about idealized hero worship than anything else. The famed director's historical dramas tend to be maudlin affairs, custom-made for history classrooms, and no doubt Lincoln will be shown to many a middle school over the ensuing decades.
Charleston City Paper |
Jake Mulligan |
11-14-2012 |
Reviews
Tags: Steven Spielberg
The Mechanics of Time Travel Sren't Really the Point of Loopernew
Pay attention to Rian Johnson, because he's trying to tell his audience how to watch his deliriously effective science-fiction thriller Looper. He does it when Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)—a hired killer in the year 2044 whose job it is to slay people sent back from 30 years in the futur—talks to his crime lord boss, Abe (Jeff Daniels).
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
09-26-2012 |
Reviews
Clint Eastwood's Baseball Movie Strikes Outnew
Trouble with the Curve opens with Clint Eastwood's character, Gus Lobel, yelling at his penis for taking too long to cooperate in urinating. Gus is considered an all-time great talent scout, currently working for the Atlanta Braves, who is constantly second-guessed at work by young underlings vying for his job.
Charleston City Paper |
Isaac Weeks |
09-19-2012 |
Reviews
One powerful relationship fuels the extraordinary The Masternew
Is The Master—Paul Thomas Anderson's hauntingly intimate epic—about Scientology? That's been the focus of attention for many with only peripheral interest in the film itself, hoping perhaps for some kind of searing roman-a-clef take-down of L. Ron Hubbard and his movement.
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
09-19-2012 |
Reviews
In Dreamsnew
Does the 'Sleepwalk With Me' film hold up to its other versions?
Charleston City Paper |
Susan Cohen |
09-12-2012 |
Reviews
Lewd subject matter aside, Hysteria is a charmernew
Here's a film that could easily have been tasteless, leering, and puerile, but instead Tanya Wexler's Hysteria is funny, charming, warm, smart, and probably the best romantic comedy since Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day back in 2008.
Charleston City Paper |
Ken Hanke |
07-18-2012 |
Reviews
Tags: Romantic Comedy, Hysteria
There are no heroes in The Dark Knight Risesnew
The Dark Knight Rises may be the darkest, the grimmest, the most depressing summer popcorn movie ever. It is not summery. It is not popcorny. There is no adventure here. There is no escapism. There is only grinding reality to be endured in the harsh mirror it holds up to the audience.
Charleston City Paper |
MaryAnn Johanson |
07-15-2012 |
Reviews
Tags: christian bale
Ted might be one of the best comedies of the yearnew
How does a man who is already stretched thin by his network television demands expect to develop his live-action film debut properly?
Charleston City Paper |
Isaac Weeks |
06-27-2012 |
Reviews
Moonrise Kingdom is whimsical, but doesn't get bogged down in tweenew
In Moonrise Kingdom, director-to-the-hipster-set Wes Anderson may have finally stumbled upon a cinematic sweet spot in which utter preciousness doesn't drown out the genuine charm of his film.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
06-25-2012 |
Reviews
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is a travestynew
While Bekmambetov isn’t quite the villain that James Wilkes Booth proved to be, the director is responsible for the travesty he has delivered to us, and finds himself with a smoking gun of a terrible film in his hands.
Charleston City Paper |
Isaac Weeks |
06-25-2012 |
Reviews
Tags: Vampire Hunter
Rock of Ages is a predictable ’80s-fueled musicalnew
Hitting the screen by way of a team of scriptwriters that includes the original stage production's Chris D'Arienzo, Rock of Ages presents a fairy-tale version of Los Angeles' heavy metal scene circa 1987.
Charleston City Paper |
Isaac Weeks |
06-19-2012 |
Reviews
