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
Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (2010)
ゼロ・ピクチュアズ
Haru (Hikari Mitsushima) has her own apartment and a university schedule she used to enjoy, but for the most part she is drifting. All her education should have been building up to something, but she no longer seems to know to what. Her ambivalence about her future has also infected her personal life: Her boyfriend bores her; she dresses sloppily; and when she first meets Riko (Eriko Nakamura) in the park, there’s an embarrassing incident over a tampon.
Riko still lives at home over her parents’ dry cleaners, and works for a medical company which hand-manufactures replacement body parts such as limbs, of course, but also ears and breasts. She explodes into Haru’s life like a mash note filled with confetti, but Haru is so passive that she only comes along for the ride. Their relationship is a source of happiness for both of them, but Haru can’t decide what it means to her.
Continue reading “Out on an Artificial Limb” »
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
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009)
Seattle International Film Festival
Before James Bond, there was Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath. It’s little known in the English-speaking world that, shortly before Ian Fleming began writing the Bond novels, a Frenchman named Jean Bruce wrote more than 90 books about France’s best secret agent. There was even a series of movies made about agent OSS 117 in the ’60s, although they didn’t attract much international attention. Since the successful reboot of Bond, the OSS 117 movies have been revived. The first one, “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies,” came out in 2006 to huge French acclaim and surprise global success despite the terrible title. “OSS 117: Lost in Rio” is the first sequel.
Continue reading “Casino Royale With Cheese” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Founding of a Republic (2009)
China Film Group
Last October, the People's Republic of China commemorated its 60th anniversary: an event marked by small-scale celebrations across the country, a massive parade in Beijing and the release of a star-studded historical epic, "The Founding of a Republic." The film follows the struggles of Mao Zedong (Tang Guoqiang) and the Communist Party as they win a civil war, secure control of China and send Chiang Kai-shek (Zhang Guoli), the leader of the rival National Party, to Taiwan in exile.
I actually had no grand plans to see the film — I wandered into a movie theater and requested tickets for whatever was playing next. I sat in my (assigned) seat and waited for some melodrama or kung-fu film to fill the screen. It turned out to be "The Founding of a Republic." And while the film lacks some cinematic energy, it provided good food for thought about China's view of itself, its roots and its legacy. Like most stories of revolution, it's always a nice reminder that nations are not born in in a vacuum, and some of the more interesting moments of the film revolve around the construction of a national identity, by highlighting arguments over the design of a new flag, anthem and governing body.
Continue reading “Bullish in a China Show” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Daybreakers (2010)
Ben Rothstein/Lionsgate
On its mission to suck the unoriginality out of the vampire canon, “Daybreakers” can’t avoid the familiar altogether. Traces of Alfonso Cuarón’s future-citizens-in-revolt “Children of Men,” itself an adaptation of P. D. James’s 1992 novel, are all over this breakneck action-horror hybrid written and directed by Australian brothers Michael and Peter Spierig. Both follow a disenchanted brainiac (here, Ethan Hawke’s reluctant bloodsucker Edward Dalton) who’s also humanity’s last hope. In the 2019-set world of “Daybreakers,” vampires have taken over, leaving only 5 percent of the human race still breathing — which, in turn, means that the now-rulers’ life liquid (human blood) is running out. Dalton, a top-ranked hematologist, stumbles across a cure, though vampires toting automatic weapons and sporadic geysers of dark-red blood make enacting the solution difficult as expected.
Continue reading “Raise the Stakes Through the Hearts” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Youth in Revolt (2010)
Chuy Chávez/Dimension Films
The big-screen-bound “Arrested Development” was in limbo because Michael Cera had declined until recently to reprise the role of George-Michael Bluth that he played in the cult TV series. It’s almost reprehensible, because every movie role Mr. Cera has had since the cancellation of the series has been a variation on that character.
Continue reading “Au revoir, l’enfant terrible” »
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” »