Critic's Notebook

White Chicks

MOVIE REVIEW
The Heat (2013)

By M. TSAI

Gemma La Mana/20th Century Fox

Even though the buddy-cop subgenre gets an estrogenic makeover with “The Heat,” it’s no less chauvinistic — unless your idea of gender equality is that men shouldn’t have the monopoly on assholery. Look, it’s certainly a woman’s prerogative to be deplorable if she chooses. To think otherwise would be quite sexist itself. But “The Heat” derives its comedy from the most grotesque stereotypes imaginable of careerist women, as if the moral of the whole story is that women who are capable of being collegial while juggling family and ambition could never amount to anything.

The Pursuit of Haplessness

MOVIE REVIEW
The Internship (2013)

By M. TSAI

Phil Bray/20th Century Fox

“The Internship” reunites Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn eight years after the Frat Pack blockbuster “Wedding Crashers.” Instead of crashing weddings for free food, free booze and hormonal women, this time they are crashing Google’s Mountain View, Calif., campus for prospective employment and, O.K., free food. The freewheeling naughts have made way for the fruitless teens. Even those perpetual slackers who talk a good game can’t talk their way out of the paper bag that is unemployment nowadays. In the face of the rippling foreclosure and broken marriage, though, the Frat Pack keeps its sunny side up: Who cares if the Google internships are only open to college students? Let’s enroll in the University of Phoenix!

The Shape of Flings

MOVIE REVIEW
Some Velvet Morning (2013)

By M. TSAI

Rogier Stoffers/2013 Tribeca Film Festival

After working as a director-for-hire on a couple of Hollywood productions, Neil LaBute is back to the playwright-turned-filmmaker niche he carved out for himself 16 years ago with “In the Company of Men.” A two-player chamber piece, “Some Velvet Morning” is indeed very theatrical — perhaps more so than all eight of his previous film efforts. In what some – though perhaps not all – will find a welcome move, he’s returning to the provocative and foul battle-of-the-sexes arena that is his wheelhouse.

Goad Unknown

MOVIE REVIEW
Michael H. Profession: Director (2013)

By M. TSAI

Yves Montmayeur/2013 Tribeca Film Festival

“Michael H. Profession: Director” documents the working methods of every cinephile’s favorite Austrian sadomasochist provocateur, Michael Haneke, at arguably the peak of a long-lauded career. One of the very first scenes in the film treats us to Mr. Haneke playing out that now-famous nightmare scene in “Amour.” It’s a breathtaking moment, seeing him standing in for Jean-Louis Trintignant in what was likely a blocking rehearsal which was then remade shot-for-shot for the actual film. In the ensuing interview, he commented that although his films aren’t autobiographical, his personal experiences do inform them.

Rescue Pawn

MOVIE REVIEW
The Rocket (2013)

By M. TSAI

Tom Greenwood/2013 Tribeca Film Festival

“The Rocket” has claimed three of the top prizes at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, winning the World Narrative Competition, Best Actor and the Heineken Audience Award. Set in rural Laos, the film revolves around a family curse brought about by the birth of Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe). The misfortune that kindles the plot is a major dam construction project that displaces Ahlo’s clan. And that relocation has a domino effect all its own. Ostracized by even his own grandmother, Taitok (Bunsri Yindi), the 10-year-old Ahlo gravitates toward his friend Kia (Loungnam Kaosainam) and her outcast war-veteran uncle Purple (Thep Phongam). In hopes of proving his worth and finally breaking his family’s string of bad luck, Ahlo wants to compete in a local rocket festival, aided by Purple’s wisdom and know-how.

The French-Canadian Connection

MOVIE REVIEW
Almost Christmas (2013)

By M. TSAI

Niko Tavernise/2013 Tribeca Film Festival

Phil Morrison made an auspicious directorial debut in 2005 with “Junebug.” Eschewing easy stereotypes, it masterfully painted a portrait of a sleepy American South haunted by a painful legacy and its people’s resignation to lives unfulfilled. The film also garnered the then-unknown Amy Adams an Oscar nomination and propelled her to overnight stardom. Given the eight years in between, expectations are naturally high for Mr. Morrison’s sophomore effort, “Almost Christmas.” Regrettably, it falls short in every way imaginable.

All the Real Bros

MOVIE REVIEW
Prince Avalanche (2013)

By M. TSAI

Scott Gardner/2013 Sundance Film Festival

David Gordon Green’s recent mainstream oeuvre has resulted in one hit (“Pineapple Express”) and two duds (“Your Highness” and “The Sitter”), in both the commercial and the critical senses. So a return to his indie roots would appear to be a welcome development for a director who initially carved his reputation out of the Malick-esque “George Washington.” But upon closer examination his latest, “Prince Avalanche,” is not unlike a bromance straight out of the Apatow clique that Mr. Green has ingratiated himself with via collaborations with Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. But then you discover “Prince Avalanche” is actually just a remake of the 2011 Icelandic film “Either Way” by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and you wonder if Mr. Green could sink any further.

Charming the Third Time

MOVIE REVIEW
Before Midnight (2013)

By M. TSAI

Despina Spyrou/Sony Pictures Classics

In “Before Midnight,” Richard Linklater unites us with Ethan Hawke’s Jesse and Julie Delpy’s Céline for a third time. The pair’s meet-cute in 1995 on a Vienna-bound train was at the heart of “Before Sunrise.” Their fateful reunion in 2004 Paris was the basis of “Before Sunset.” This time, they are a couple with twin daughters in tow vacationing at a writer’s retreat in Messenia, Greece. The new film proceeds to examine domestic roles, fidelity, mortality and this thing called love.

Out of Left Fields

MOVIE REVIEW
At Any Price (2013)

By M. TSAI

Hooman Bahrani/Sony Pictures Classics

Ramin Bahrani’s last three films — namely “Man Push Cart,” “Chop Shop” and “Goodbye Solo” — followed the plights of outcasts such as immigrants and street orphans. While the first two took place in gritty New York City, the latter was set in his native Winston-Salem, N.C. So even though the Iowa cornfield setting in Mr. Bahrani’s latest, “At Any Price,” might come as no surprise, the film’s thoroughly white-bred concerns still mark a huge departure for the filmmaker.

Jobless Adman Makes a Fever Pitch

MOVIE REVIEW
As Luck Would Have It (2013)

By M. TSAI

Sundance Selects

With the participation of Salma Hayek, one would hope that “As Luck Would Have It” could finally help launch Álex de la Iglesia from relative obscure cultdom to the international acclaim enjoyed by fellow zany Spanish melodramatist, Pedro Almodóvar. After all, Mr. de la Iglesia has delivered over the years an oeuver that includes such pure lunacy as “The Last Circus,” a Franco-era allegory involving murderous circus clowns; “El crimen perfecto,” about a lothario marrying a homely and crazy woman after she witnessed him accidentally killing a man and blackmailed him; and “The Day of the Beast,” in which a basque priest attempts to stop the birth of the Antichrist.