MOVIE REVIEW
The Answer Man (2009)
Magnolia Pictures
Jeff Daniels, a tremendously under-appreciated actor, gets one of his best roles as the lead in “The Answer Man,” a quirky romantic comedy from first time writer-director John Hindman. The actor is the primary reason to see the picture, a charming albeit slight piffle of the sort that routinely gets overpraised by the Sundance Film Festival, where it debuted.
MOVIE REVIEW
Homecoming (2009)
Paper Street Films/Animus Films
“Homecoming,” the new film from director Morgan J. Freeman, is stuck in a time warp. It stars Mischa Barton, who hasn’t been heard from since the heyday of “The O.C.” It joyfully applies trashy thriller tropes to the small-town high-school narrative popularized by the shows of the old WB network and turn-of-the-century cinematic fare such as “The Skulls,” that bent over backwards to turn R-rated narratives into PG-13-rated fare (although “Homecoming” is unrated). Gleefully, patently absurd, it’s hard to surmise exactly how the movie managed to avoid an unceremonious DVD dumping.
MOVIE REVIEW
Death in Love (2009)
Screen Media Films
“Death in Love” is such a bleak, downbeat experience that one literally suffers while watching it. It’s a relentless, oppressive cry of pain from writer-director Boaz Yakin – the story of miserable people living miserable lives without redemption, humor or hope. As if that weren’t enough of a reason to avoid the movie, the filmmaker fills it with endless, droning scenes rife with sadomasochism and a sense of self-seriousness that grows ever more stultifying as things wear on.
MOVIE REVIEW
Humpday (2009)
Magnolia Pictures
“Humpday,” from writer-director Lynn Shelton, transforms a thoroughly outrageous premise into a thoughtful study of the burdens of 21st-century masculinity. Incorporating an improvised technique that lends an authentic sensibility to the proceedings, she and stars Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard and Alycia Delmore have created a film that defies all logic by seeming so relatable and real. What seems on paper to be destined for outsized satire instead becomes something that cuts deeper – a film that evokes the genuine humor of its central conceit and the pain that accompanies it.
MOVIE REVIEW
Brüno (2009)
Mark Schwartzbard/Universal Pictures
“Brüno” pushes the boundaries of good taste by taking the ribald skits Sacha Baron Cohen performed as the character on “Da Ali G Show” and supersizing them for the big screen. It fulfills that base function in the same fashion as “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” with each scene structured around the comic shock value of the star pushing the limits of taste and sanity. Yet, those individual set pieces lack the cohesive, nasty satiric sensibility that characterized the fictional Kazakh journalist’s jaunt through Americana hell.
MOVIE REVIEW
The Beaches of Agnès (2008)
Cinema Guild
Agnès Varda, icon of the French New Wave and its leading female voice, has continued to perfect her unique brand of filmmaking in the years since that burst of cinematic exuberance subsided. Now, at age 80, she’s come out with “The Beaches of Agnès,” a whimsical autobiography that covers the span of her career. It’s a characteristically colorful, poignant work full of exquisite compositions and dreamlike reflections that serves as an ideal encapsulation of the Vardian sensibility.
MOVIE REVIEW
Public Enemies (2009)
Peter Mountain/Universal Studios
“Public Enemies,” Michael Mann’s latest opus of organized crime, will divide its viewers into two camps. They will consist, respectively, of those who support the application of the harsh, grainy digital cinematography – that has become his preferred method of working – to a period piece and those who do not.
MOVIE REVIEW
The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
MPower Pictures
A simple purpose underlies “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” fulfilled without distractions by director Cyrus Nowrasteh. Based on the 1994 novel by Freidoune Sahebjam, it’s a streamlined, real-time depiction of the true event promised by the title: the brutal communal stoning of a woman that took place in newly post-revolutionary Iran. A fervent outcry against the abuses subjected on women not only in Iran – with which we’ve all become familiar during the past two weeks – but throughout much of the world, it successfully provokes feelings of uncontrollable outrage.
Continue reading “Let He Who is With Sin Cast the First Stone” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Paramount Pictures
Movies do not get more painstakingly idiotic than “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” – an orgy of clanging metal, propagandistic wide shots, short declarative sentences passing for dialogue and uncontrolled camera pans. Where Michael Bay’s first crack at the “Transformers” franchise – though itself a dubious venture – managed to evoke a sort of silly, slapdash spirit, the sequel quickly collapses into unmitigated big-budget tedium, all dressed up with nowhere to go. It indulges all of its maker’s worst instincts, without demonstrating any of the muscular storytelling that’s become his true specialty.
Continue reading “More Than Sores the Eye, Robots in Disgrace” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Windmill Movie (2009)
The Film Desk
To most people Richard P. Rogers probably seemed like a lucky man. Born of the privilege of life on the Upper East Side and the Hamptons, he reached the upper echelon of academics in his professorship at Harvard, thrived as a documentarian and experimental filmmaker, and was graced with three decades of love from the same woman. Yet, as Alexander Olch’s “The Windmill Movie” reveals, a dark and conflicted soul brewed beneath that idealized exterior.