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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 [...]

The buzz was that A Serious Man might get an Oscar nomination for Best Picture this year, but I was still surprised to see it. Surprised and kind of elated. I just loved the movie. For me, it was Coen Brothers at their best. And movie-making at its best.
The movie is hard to describe, and [...]

I’m pretty sure everyone associated with making Couples Retreat signed on to it mainly so they could go to Bora Bora and soak up some sun, because the actual movie feels like an afterthought, a flat and frequently unfunny high-concept comedy that literally overstays its welcome.
Concocted by stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, it sends [...]

For those of you out there who fear that the end of the world is nigh, take heart–Armageddon will no doubt have its own little pleasures. Case in point: Zombieland, the latest entry in the celebrated zombie comedy sub-genre, bringing the joy back to zombie plague survival. Set about 2 months after a particularly virulent [...]

Cold Souls should have been really good. It stars Paul Giamatti as Paul Giamatti, an unhappy actor who pays a doctor (David Strathairn) to remove his soul in an “amazing” new procedure. No, it’s not a Charlie Kaufman movie, no matter how much it wants to be. Think a mixture of Being John Malkovich and [...]

Finally a film for that rare young girl who doesn’t feel the world understands her. Whip It is the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, starring Juno’s Ellen Page as Bliss, a young girl in a small Texas town who feels the world doesn’t understand her. On a trip to Austin, Bliss discovers that her life’s [...]

Ricky Gervais‘ The Invention of Lying is a comedy that takes place in an alternate reality in which the human species has never discovered how to deceive one another. In this reality, Coca-Cola’s advertising slogan is “Please continue buying Coke–it’s very famous” and its competitor’s is ”Pepsi–when they don’t have Coke.” Films are produced, but without any capacity [...]

Obsession is a common theme in cinema. Whether it’s obsession with a woman, a treasure or a white whale, man’s innate desire to gain control over something greater than himself has led to some of the finest storytelling in film history. Director/writer Robert Siegel’s first script, for The Wrestler, detailed with a keen, if sentimental, [...]

You know a lot of time has passed when the best comedy of 2009 is about the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, to be fair, the debut film from BBC comedy veteran Armando Iannucci isn’t specifically about the U.S. invasion. Neither Bush nor Blair are ever mentioned by name, and Iraq isn’t, either. It’s [...]

I’m not overly familiar with the 1980 version of Fame aside from its hit title song, but I do know it was rated R, which alone gives it an edge over this slick, but bland PG revamp that, despite periodically producing a beat you can dance to, acts too much like a soap you’d see [...]