MOVIE REVIEW
The Other Guys (2010)
Macall Polay/Columbia Pictures
In the pre-Judd Apatow era, bromance blossomed only in the buddy-cop genre. The rationale must have been that sexual tension in a homosocial environment would seem a lot less gay if these characters could kick some ass. Come to think of it, you could even get away with bestiality in the buddy-cop genre. As you might recall, the dog in “K-9” got jealous and barged in to cause coitus interruptus between James Belushi and his human romantic interest.
Continue reading “Bum’s Rush Hour” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Enter the Void (2010)
IFC Films
“Vous avez 30 secondes pour abandoner la projection de ce film,” the title card’s boldface lettering and countdown rudely interrupted the proceedings of Gaspar Noé’s “I Stand Alone” before the climactic murder/suicide/incest. Sure, it was gimmicky, but the intensity of what ensued totally merited the warning. His follow-up, “Irreversible,” started out bracingly with the fire-extinguisher bludgeoning and the underpass rape, but ultimately fizzled due to its reverse chronology. Although Mr. Noé’s latest, “Enter the Void,” follows a more conventional time line, it unfortunately turns out to be just as anticlimactic.
Continue reading “Memoirs of a Gaijin” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Animal Kingdom (2010)
Narelle Sheean/Sony Pictures Classics
An Australian drama about the fracturing of a crime family, “Animal Kingdom” won the world cinema jury prize and lavish praise from critics at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. But honestly, the film is lame. It’s reminiscent of those duds that Bob Berney used to pick up for Newmarket (“Stander” comes immediately to mind) that are utterly unremarkable, yet seem to attract critical attention by virtue of being indie flicks about impoverished white folks speaking in tongues. (Given that Mr. Berney is currently in between jobs, Sony Classics has the distribution rights.)
Continue reading “In the Penal Colony” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Easy A (2010)
Adam Taylor/Screen Gems
“Easy A” purports to be about an unnoticeable high-school girl, Olive (Emma Stone), whose white lie about losing her virginity makes her the target of gossip and ostracism that she wholeheartedly embraces as a means to advance her wealth and notoriety. That premise sounds kind of cool, except that’s not what actually transpires in the final product.
Continue reading “Making the Downgrade” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Life During Wartime (2010)
Francisco Román/IFC Films
Todd Solondz’s “Life During Wartime” is a ghost story. It’s not a horror flick, but various specters figuratively or literally haunt the lives of its characters: an absent father, the burdens of family and career, and, yes, a dead person’s disembodied spirit. The sequel to “Happiness,” “Life” revisits the three sisters from the controversial 1998 film. But Mr. Solondz here employs a brand new cast that bares no physical resemblance to the previous one, a strategy recalling the ever-evolving protagonist in “Palindromes.”
Continue reading “Full Mental Jacket” »
Roger Ebert recently graced Critic’s Notebook with his eminence and quoted our writer, Sarah Manvel, in his review of the documentary “45365.” Under most circumstances, this kind of exposure would be a major shot in the arm for any humble little website such as ours, where underemployed film critics are quietly plugging away for no money in hopes of slowly and steadily building an audience or landing the elusive paying gig.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ebert did not have nice things to say. He did not attribute the quote from Ms. Manvel’s review nor provide a link, but that did not spare her the public humiliation. It’s not exactly difficult to locate the original review with Google, and Mr. Ebert’s minions had little trouble finding us.
Continue reading “Roger Ebert vs. the Future of Film Criticism” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Get Him to the Greek (2010)
Glen Wilson/Universal Studios
“Get Him to the Greek,” the latest from the Judd Apatow bromance factory, is a spin-off from the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” orbit. Brit comedian Russell Brand reprises the role of Aldous Snow, the pompous and wasted English rock cliché who could have been the bastard lovechild of Liam Gallagher and Amy Winehouse. Then you have Seth Rogen Jr., a k a Jonah Hill of “Superbad,” playing lowly record company operative Aaron, who has the unenviable task of escorting Aldous from London to Los Angeles for a comeback concert and dodging – albeit unsuccessfully – all the groupies, booze and drugs along the way.
Continue reading “From Here to Fraternity” »
Gianranco Mura/IFC Films
Filmmaker Marco Bellocchio has been tackling some of the thorniest aspects of the Italian national psyche since his 1965 debut "Fists in the Pocket." He has yet to show signs of slowing down, crafting vital cinema throughout the past two decades. Through the story of an atheist son coming to terms with his mother's candidacy for sainthood, "My Mother's Smile" energized Mr. Bellochio's recurring themes of the church and the nuclear family. "Good Morning, Night" explored the Red Brigade's 1978 kidnap and assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. "The Wedding Director" lampooned a national cinema unable to reclaim its past neorealist glory. His latest, "Vincere," takes on none other than the infamous fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Continue reading “Bellocchio Plays Politics With Film” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Repo Men (2010)
Kerry Hayes/Universal Studios
The modus operandi of “Repo Men” preys on the ignorance of moviegoers, in terms of both ripping off other movies and glossing over gaping plot holes. Jude Law and Forest Whitaker are the eponymous main characters, except this is supposedly our dystopian future where they repossess artificial organ transplants from those who can’t pay.
Continue reading “Hey Jude, Don’t Make It Worse” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Remember Me (2010)
Nicole Rivelli/Summit Entertainment
For the most part, “Remember Me” retreads the tiresome story of boy meets girl; they fall in love; girl’s daddy interferes; some lame misunderstanding involving girl’s daddy threatens to wreck the romance; boy eventually wins girl back, etc. In other words, the film is for the most part indistinguishable from all the Nicholas Sparks movie adaptations, save for the fact that Robert Pattinson is in it.
Continue reading “Entering the Twilight Zone” »