If, like me, you are a fan of absorbing storytelling, gorgeous visuals, and an elegant and subtle camera, then you’ll love Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces.
It’s amazing to me how such an accomplished visual storyteller can also create such intricate, precise scripts, packed with verbal exposition, yet matched by visual [...]
Saturday 20 Mar 2010 |
blogadmin |
drama, foreign films, movie reviews, recommendations, romance
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart again suffer mightily as a tortured teenage vampire and his seriously sulky soul mate in this follow-up to 2008’s toothless Twilight, but not nearly as much as the audience does in enduring 130 minutes of dreadful dialogue, awful acting and co-star Taylor Lautner and his [...]
Saturday 20 Mar 2010 |
blogadmin |
drama, movie reviews, romance, sci-fi / fantasy
I liked Juno, I liked Thank You for Smoking, therefore I liked Jason Reitman. I had decided he was a director who I would always look for on DVD, and I did. From now on I’ll be going to the theater, because Up in the Air is a game-changer.
Thursday 11 Mar 2010 |
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comedy, drama, movie reviews, recommendations, romance
Now that the awards shows are over, the tally shows us that Precious has won 2 Oscars, 65 other awards, and has had 55 additional nominations. The film cleaned up at the Independent Spirit Awards, taking top honors.
But somehow, in this maelstrom of accolades, I wasn’t all that wowed. This movie is absolutely, positively worth [...]
Thursday 11 Mar 2010 |
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drama, movie reviews, recommendations
First of all, anyone worried about this film staying true to the art of the original should know that author Maurice Sendak gave his full approval to director Spike Jonze, writer Dave Eggers, and their conceptual interpretation of his classic of childrens’ literature Where the Wild Things Are. This is not the Sendak book I [...]
Friday 05 Mar 2010 |
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action/adventure, drama, movie reviews, recommendations, sci-fi / fantasy
Although a certain esteemed colleague of mine would vehemently disagree with my opinion, I think my favorite character in The Informant! would probably have to be the hilariously Laugh-In inspired, assorted Americana-flavored score by national treasure/composer Marvin Hamlisch. I found the music served to keep a consistently absurdist tone throughout what might otherwise have been [...]
Thursday 25 Feb 2010 |
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comedy, drama, movie reviews, recommendations
I never much cared for director Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko, with its trippy time travel and cryptic-creepy rabbit, and liked his nonsensical Southland Tales even less. His seeming need for his films to be illogical eventually plagues The Box, too, turning what starts out as an intriguing and easy-to-grasp sci-fi parable into yet another mind-bending [...]
Thursday 25 Feb 2010 |
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drama, movie reviews, sci-fi / fantasy, suspense/thrillers
(Warning: Sports-related terminology, of both a British and American variety, is contained in the following review, including the usage of the term ‘football’ for ’soccer‘, references to 1970’s baseball managers, and the like. To find out whether the film is ’shot well’, is ‘well lit’, or is ‘an adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride‘, please consult the footnotes [...]
Thursday 25 Feb 2010 |
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drama, movie reviews, recommendations
Everybody’s Fine, the third film from Waking Ned Devine director Kirk Jones, is a remake of an Italian film of the same name.
It’s the story of Frank Goode (Robert DeNiro), a recent widower. After his children (Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, and Kate Beckinsale) all call and cancel a planned weekend, he decides to go visit [...]
Thursday 25 Feb 2010 |
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drama, movie reviews
I’ve never seen a film of director Anne Fontaine’s (How I Killed My Father; The Girl From Monaco) before. I was reminded at a few moments in this film of the visual style of Sofia Coppola, which is a good thing in my book. I look forward to seeing Fontaine’s style grow and evolve in [...]
Friday 19 Feb 2010 |
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drama, foreign films, movie reviews, recommendations