MOVIE REVIEW
The Tooth Fairy (2010)

Diyah Pera/20th Century Fox
For a cruddy kids’ movie-vehicle for Dwayne Johnson, “The Tooth Fairy” required a lot of screenwriters. Apparently Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, Joshua Sternin, Jeffrey Ventimilia and Randy Mayem Singer were all needed to come up with lines such as “may the tooth be with you,” “you can’t handle the tooth” and “thank you fairy much.” Okay, I don’t actually remember the last line in the movie, but spend enough time with puns being beaten into your brain (what primarily passes for dialogue here) and they’ll remain there mutating like a terrible disease.
Continue reading “Biting the Fairy Dust” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Book of Eli (2010)

David Lee/Warner Bros. Pictures
“The Book of Eli” takes place in a bleak, barren wasteland, with society’s detritus strewn about and the few remaining humans caked in dirt and grime. Set some 30 years after what’s called “the flash,” it occupies a standard post-apocalyptic milieu. Yet, at times the Hughes brothers — the filmmaking talents behind “Menace II Society” and “From Hell,” among others — dress it differently. They incorporate cinematography that emphasizes passing clouds and stark shadows, in a noir/graphic-novel approach; and they benefit from the charismatic presence of Denzel Washington as the loner title character.
Yet despite their best stylistic efforts — which include the incorporation of windswept Western gun fights and other such genre tropes — the movie entwines itself in a pedestrian chase-oriented narrative that drags along before descending into irredeemably inexplicable silliness.
Continue reading “The Road Less Raveled” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The White Ribbon (2009)

Films du Losange/Sony Pictures Classics
In “The White Ribbon” Michael Haneke does Bergman. That is to say, he approximates the Swedish master’s characteristically austere, rigidly formalist style that contains only the most slightly submerged sadistic undertones. The winner of the Palme d’or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, it’s an intermittently effective experiment that’s too often derailed by the pervasive sense of overcalculation.
Continue reading “Puritan-Driven Snow Job” »
MOVIE REVIEW
A Film With Me in It (2009)

IFC Films
An off-kilter dark comedy, “A Film With Me In It” establishes a high concept premise and follows it through without compromise. Imbued with the spirit of Martin McDonagh, director Ian Fitzgibbon and screenwriter-star Mark Doherty feature the ultimate depressed protagonist and setting — a lazy, struggling actor living in a flat that’s literally crumbling to pieces — and run both through the proverbial ringer. It’s a small picture that embraces its smallness, centered on a self-reflexive premise and some twisted, punishing campy humor.
Continue reading “Murder, He Wrote, Directed and Starred In” »
MOVIE REVIEW
It's Complicated (2009)

Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Studios
“It’s Complicated” might take place in Santa Barbara, but it’s really set in movie land. You know where: Rich, luxurious homes, picturesque families, helicopter shots of resplendent scenery and a plot full of idealized romantic comedy. Writer-director Nancy Meyers has made such a milieu her specialty, and here she populates it with a cast rife with potential: Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin earn top billing.
Yet even they can’t keep the film from escaping the staleness of the formula, the sense that such white bread flights of fancy have become hopelessly dated at the close of the aughts. With films such as “(500) Days of Summer” reinvigorating the romantic comedy genre, there’s not much room left for movies that refuse to acknowledge that diversifying and changes are afoot.
Continue reading “What Women Wish” »

Dale Robinette/Paramount Pictures
I’m rather adverse to the perfunctory duty of producing an introduction to the yearly top ten list, as those opening salvos all tend to read like a laundry list of gripes: Movies mostly stunk this year; there was a surprising lack of great films; what’s going on with Hollywood etc. Here’s the reality: It was an up and down year for big studio pictures, but despite the significant strife befalling the independent apparatus, there was still a surplus of top-notch indie productions that graced cinemas and video-on-demand menus everywhere. In other words, 2009 was in large part not much different than any other recent year. Without further ado, here are my picks for the best it had to offer:
Continue reading “Blasting Off and On Again” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Young Victoria (2009)

Liam Daniel/Apparition
“The Young Victoria” breaks no new ground in the realm of period
pieces. It’s concerned — as have been many of its predecessors with royals as
subjects — with the burdens of monarchy such as the pressures to produce an
heir, confront complex palace intrigue and find a way to connect with the
outside world.
Yet it’s a work of high, refined craft from director Jean-Marc Vallée
and screenwriter Julian Fellowes. With an appropriate emphasis on the quieter drama beneath the magisterial splendor and Emily Blunt’s terrific, empathetic performance as Queen
Victoria, it achieves the challenging feat of making a narrative set in the
early 19th century seem wholly contemporary, without needless
stylistic quirks or anachronisms. Ms. Blunt’s performance succeeds because she makes the ultimate icon
relatable, playing the longest reigning British monarch with the vulnerability
and unease of anyone forced into a difficult position before he or she ready.
Continue reading “Victoria’s Secret” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Avatar (2009)

WETA/20th Century Fox
James Cameron doesn’t make movies. He makes events. And “Avatar,” which comes hyped with a much speculated upon budget of around $500 million and the wonders of the filmmaker’s stereoscopic 3-D camera system, is perhaps his biggest yet.
With great power comes great responsibility — as another big-budget icon noted — and great responsibility brings the weight of enormous expectations. Well, ignore the bad buzz spurred by the mediocre first trailer and forgo your cynicism. The movie works spectacularly well, providing a vibrant experience on par with those provided by the legendary blockbusters of Hollywood’s past.
Continue reading “King of the 3-D World” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Nine (2009)

David James/The Weinstein Company
“Nine,” Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Broadway musical version of Federico Fellini’s “8 1/2,” unfolds in a strange netherworld located somewhere between its two prior forms. It takes stabs at evoking the dreamlike psychological reverie of Fellini’s masterpiece but stops dead for clunky, poorly-integrated musical numbers. The dialogue alludes to the transformative power of cinema while the picture remains aesthetically earthbound, frozen by pedestrian prettified visual compositions and blatantly artificial stagecraft that hasn’t transitioned well.
Continue reading “All That Jizz” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Invictus (2009)

Keith Bernstein/Warner Bros. Pictures
“I am the master of my fate,” reads the William Ernest Henley poem from which Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” takes its title. “I am the captain of my soul.” Those words helped Nelson Mandela through the insane ordeal of the 27 years he spent ensconced in a tiny prison cell and they lie at the core of the tale of reconciliation Mr. Eastwood presents here.
Continue reading “All Forgiven” »