Latest Film Reviews

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Tabloid (2011)

Morris compellingly unfolds the story and clearly means for us to see our own untoward qualities writ large in Joyce and the circus surrounding her.
The Music Room (1958)

A surprisingly sympathetic elegy for the feudal class, or at least one of its sad representatives...the notion of lost legacy informs the film's distraught last word: 'blood.'
Naked (1993)

Leigh's extensive use of improvisation in rehearsal led to a razor-sharp final script, endlessly blooming with memorable dialogue that—while never less than credibly naturalistic—proves thematically fertile.
Source Code (2011)

Since Source Code is philosophical science fiction and not just 'sci fi,' there's something to chew on here about consciousness: when it begins and ends, and that old chestnut of what constitutes reality.
Das Boot (1981)

Few war films are more potent than Das Boot...the ultimate submarine movie.
Captain America (2011)

The most noticeable motif Johnston plays with is the use of a garbage-can lid as a shield: more important than $140 million dollars worth of toys is Johnston’s childlike sense of play.
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Figgis puts a desperate drunk front and center and demands we deal with him and the Jungian shadow he casts.
The Horse Soldiers (1959)

Though flawed, John Ford's The Horse Soldiers has a fair amount going for it: the well-oiled partnership of Ford and star John Wayne (and an assist from William Holden); Ford's vivid visual style; and large-scale action.
The Manchurian Candidate (2011)

Set the standard for cinematic paranoid thrillers and stands as the quintessential John Frankenheimer film.
Project Nim (2011)

Fascinating characters...inescapably provokes consideration of the human animal’s primal nature.
Hobo With a Shotgun (2011)

The screenplay plays like the result of a 'Write the Most Vile Line Ever' contest, which in itself will be a huge draw for cinematic dumpster divers.
Louie: The Complete First Season (2011)

Seemingly conceived on the fly as much as it's shot on the fly, Louie cultivates the unexpected.
Ceremony (2011)

More interested in melancholy wryness than belly laughs, and the low-key results have a pleasant fizz.
Buck (2011)

Both Buck and Buck endorse sensitive care for the voiceless, whether they be horses or cowed children.
Zazie dans le métro (1960)

Jazzy and daring...takes Raymond Queneau's novel—the sort generally considered 'unfilmable' and makes a film so cinematic as to appear sui generis.
Original Sin (2001)

Though written and directed by a Pulitzer Prize winner, Original Sin is better known as the picture in which a naked Angelina Jolie (by then a certified Oscar winner) and Antonio Banderas do the horizontal mambo.
People on Sunday (a.k.a. Menschen am Sonntag) (1930)

Though People on Sunday regards people lazing about, its legacy is that of filmmakers proving their industriousness.
The Long Riders (1980)

Hill's lean, mean approach never had a more appealing texture than it does here...
Larry Crowne (2011)

Has the consistency of an individually wrapped slice of Velveeta.
Of Gods and Men (2011)

Loses some power by letting the central debate fizzle out...but rallies in the end with an eloquent post-climactic testament by Christian, an attempt to respond rationally to the irrational.
Hair (1979)

Hair benefited from the creative freedom of '70s cinema...at its best when it's most creatively subversive...
New York, New York (1977)

Ultimately a very personal film about how Scorsese views a genre of film and, as such, has a much more coherent vision than its reputation would suggest.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

The latest workmanlike entry in what must be regarded as an unprecedented film series has plenty of flaws, but also the franchise's reliable draws.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Emerson said, 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,' but in this franchise--where you’re likely to spot a hobgoblin or two--the consistency isn’t foolish but miraculous.
Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... - Season Two (2011)

Features the leading light of popular music today, Elvis Costello, as host and regular perfomer.
Insignificance (1985)

Reflects Roeg's views of the absurdity of American history and our compulsion to destroy beauty.
The Makioka Sisters (1983)

Well acted by a strong ensemble, The Makioka Sisters quietly, steadily (and almost imperceptibly as it happens) endears us to these women, investing us in their varied fates.
Cedar Rapids (2011)

Detailed and consistently funny observation of small-town sincerity muddling through a dog-eat-dog world.
The Boondock Saints (1999)

It's one thing to make a film that's violent and profane; it's another to make one that's a moral black hole, and to do it because black looks cool.
The Trip (2011)

Reunites the delectable pair of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, real-life actor-comic friends who play versions of themselves to highly amusing and oddly wistful effect.
Beginners (2011)

Cuts the whimsy with melancholy...its case of the cutes isn’t terminal.
Being Human: Season Three (2011)

Turner's character of Mitchell, a century-old vampire, gets a go-for-broke story arc that sends him off in a satisfying way.
The Misfits (1961)

Deconstructs Hollywood's cowboy myth with a mythic Hollywood cast: Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift.
Death at a Funeral (2007)

Proves you can spell funeral without 'fun.'
Unknown (2011)

A not-bad thriller starring Liam Neeson. If that sounds like faint praise, it is, but at least this overgrown 'B'-movie tickles the brain just a tad...
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

Neuron-rotting brain candy: an empty action exercise made up of empty calories. That'd be fine, if only it were sweet.
Kes (1970)

Throbs with a simple truthfulness...Loach shows his complimentary interest in documentary-influenced social realism and the improvisational search for the authentic.
Super 8 (2011)

Let's be honest: the b.s. sci-fi plot is so much empty machinery, which becomes steadily more apparent as the film wends its way toward a heavy-metal climax that's narratively and emotionally questionable.
Rocky (1976)

It's all here: the famous Bill Conti fanfare, the 'Gonna Fly Now' training montage, the inevitable 'David and Goliath' climax.
Some Like It Hot (1959)

The preeminent comedy of anima...effervescent and breezily paced, from the car-chase opening to the big finish capped with one of the all-time-great punchlines.

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