MOVIE REVIEW
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Kerry Hayes/Universal Studios
Fanboys and fellow critics have worked themselves into a tizzy over Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” Smart, dependable reviewers have called the movie a “masterpiece” and a “generational milestone,” a “genius turn” in the "Shaun of the Dead" filmmaker’s career.
If a picture as gleefully vapid as this is what passes for a generational milestone in 2010, we’re in trouble. Mr. Wright’s adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s beloved graphic novel series (unread by this reviewer) is about as complete and coherent a film as was the blur of light and sound that comprised “Speed Racer.”
Continue reading “Guitar Zero” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2010)
IFC Films
Tom Six, who made his name as a director on the original run of Endemol's revolutionary TV production "Big Brother," has since established himself as one of the most pioneering, controversial and divisive producers/writers/directors in his native Netherlands. His debut feature "Gay" was the country's first gay feature film; and with his latest effort "The Human Centipede (First Sequence)," Mr. Six seems intent on continuing to push boundaries.
Continue reading “Keeping Captives in Stitches” »
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
Last Train Home (2010)
Zeitgeist Films
"Last Train Home," a cinema vérité-style documentary by Chinese-Canadian director Fan Lixin, burrows so deeply into the lives of a select few migrant Chinese workers that it might take the viewer some minutes to readjust to their own familiar world after the credits roll. Set in southern and western China, "Last Train Home" follows Zhang Changhua and his wife Chen Suqin, who work in a clothing factory in Guangzhou, while their children live with their grandmother in Sichuan.
Mr. Zhang and Ms. Chen are just two out of 130 million migrant workers who eke out a living in the cities and send money back to their families in the countryside. If they can scrape together enough savings, they attempt to travel back to their hometowns for Chinese New Year (along with the rest of the country). The film calls it "the world's largest human migration." Mr. Fan deftly presents major issues such as overpopulation and urban poverty, but these matters hum under the surface of the beautifully woven-together narrative: an unsparing portrait of parents trying to survive, while simultaneously pushing their children to achieve bigger and better things.
Continue reading “Hand-Wringing Migration” »
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
Salt (2010)
Andrew Schwartz/Columbia Pictures
Playing the real-world spy version of her “Tomb Raider” character, Angelina Jolie goes on a butt-kicking rampage in “Salt.” The spectacle of Angie torching and gunning down baddies while clad in a long-flowing overcoat or tight business attire is the primary selling point for Phillip Noyce’s absurd, twisty thriller, one that flirts at genuine intrigue before giving in to the worst impulses of subpar spy fiction.
Continue reading “Snoop Dog-Eat-Dog” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Valhalla Rising (2010)
IFC Films
“Bronson,” the last film from Danish writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn, told the story of Britain’s most notoriously violent criminal through frequent excursions into the character’s deranged subconscious. “Valhalla Rising,” Mr. Refn’s latest, feels like the sort of movie Charles Bronson might have made were he fascinated by Vikings.
Continue reading “The Last Viking of Scotland” »
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” »