Recent Stories
THE GREAT GATSBY
Literary Criticism: Baz Luhrmann’s problem is more than not showing proper respect for The Great Gatsby.
What if Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby didn’t have to carry the burden of The Great Gatsby? That’s not just some Zen koan-like riddle intended to inspire deep meditation; it’s a question about the way ...
Olympus Has Fallen
Channeling Die Hard Olympus Has Fallen shows what that other action franchise is missing.
Sure, I may be a film critic – but I’m also an American. I’ve got my pride in our nation’s accomplishments, and I don’t like seeing its institutions in peril. Which is why Olympus Has ...
Chicken With Plums
Strung Along: Chicken With Plums conjures painful sweetness in the life and death of an Iranian violinist.
For more than an hour, Chicken With Plums looks like it’s going to be a case study in terminal levels of preciousness. Then, improbably, directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud bring it back from the ...
The Master
I Will Follow: One powerful relationship – not an assault on Scientology – fuels the extraordinary The Master.
Is Paul Thomas Anderson’s hauntingly intimate epic The Master 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 ...
Inception
Presents of Mind: Christopher Nolan gives the gift of another brainy blockbuster with
For weeks – nay, months – I played along with the coy refusals by writer/director Christopher Nolan and the cast members of Inception to reveal too much about its premise. I resisted the urge to ...
THE TWILIGHT SAGA - ECLIPSE
Bloodless Wonder: Bringing in a horror director still doesn’t make
They keep trying, the producers of the Twilight films; you’ve got to give them that. For 2008’s Twilight, they hired Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen) to direct, suggesting they were aiming for edgy teen drama. Then they ...
Toy Story 3
We Are Family: Toy Story 3 soars on the wonderful heartbreak of intimate connection, a compelling account of the joys, and difficulties, of letting go.
“You’ve got a friend in me,” go the lyrics to the Randy Newman tune that has been crooned in all of Pixar’s magical Toy Story films, including the brand-new Toy Story 3. It’s a catchy ...
Shrek Forever After
Just Like Starting Ogre: Shrek Forever After throws out the films’ history – and it’s an improvement.
Many of us have suspected it all along, but with Shrek Forever After, it becomes official: The Shrek film series is actually a sitcom. Since time immemorial – okay, since the late ’70s – there ...
Babies
Natal Habitat: Babies observes cultural differences – and overly-precious cuteness.
In the new French-produced documentary Babies, the filmmakers attempt to observe the many unique cultural components of early childhood development and parenting by… Oh look at that one play with the goat! Isn’t that just ...
The Men Who Stare At Goats
True Lies: 'The Men Who Stare at Goats' succeeds at silliness but fails at journalism.
“More of this story is true than you would believe,” reads the caption at the beginning of The Men Who Stare at Goats, but let’s be real: No one involved in this movie goes on ...
