MOVIE REVIEW
Whiteout (2009)
Warner Bros. Pictures
The spirit of William Castle lives on in “Whiteout,” but for all the wrong reasons. The late horror director, known for promoting his pictures with elaborate gimmicks, was one of a kind when it came to audience interaction. For 1959’s “The Tingler,” Castle rigged buzzers to theater seats that jolted backsides whenever the movie’s titular antagonist would attack; that same year, an inflatable glow-in-the-dark skeleton zipped above the audience on a wire just as a skeleton terrorized Vincent Price’s fictional wife during the climax of “House on Haunted Hill.” “Whiteout” – the latest release from Joel Silver’s Dark Castle imprint, his salute to the gimmicky legend – unintentionally revives that brand of fourth-wall breaking. Set in Antarctica, it’s a lifeless murder mystery cloaked in C.G.I. snow blizzards. The filmmakers took the coldness too far, though; the frozen skills employed for “Whiteout” could literally numb viewers’ brains.
Continue reading “Encounters With a Killer at the End of the World” »
MOVIE REVIEW
9 (2009)
Focus Features
In these days of bloated budgets and excessive running times, a movie that clocks in at 79 minutes should be a cause for celebration. In the case of Shane Acker’s “9,” it’s actually the opposite – a cause for consternation and the bemoaning of a missed opportunity. Sadly, every bit of uniqueness found in Mr. Acker’s animated vision of a ravaged, post-apocalyptic Earth populated solely by sentient rag dolls is counterbalanced by the failure of his collaboration with screenwriter Pamela Pettler. Rarely has so much imagination been poured into one facet of a film at the expense of another.
Continue reading “HAL Freezes Over” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Extract (2009)
Sam Urdank/Miramax Films
“I am the Great Cornholio! I need T. P. for my bunghole!” What in the world ever happened to Mike Judge, who supplied such 1990s cultural milestones as MTV’s “Beavis and Butt-Head” and blazed the trail for the likes of Ricky Gervais with “Office Space” before dropping off the radar of popular culture? Perhaps only his most diehard fans were aware of the unceremonious release of 2006’s “Idiocracy,” which 20th Century Fox dumped onto about 100 screens without advertisements or trailers. No matter, Mr. Judge is back, and we have to settle for that sorry excuse for comedy known as bromance no longer.
Continue reading “Trading Laugh Tracks for an R Rating” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Big Fan (2009)
First Independent Pictures
Paul Auferio (Patton Oswalt), the eponymous “Big Fan” of “The Wrestler” screenwriter and former editor-in-chief of the Onion Robert Siegel’s directorial debut, more than earns the title. He eats, sleeps, breathes and bleeds the New York Giants, loving the team down to the core of his being. All other concerns, such as interpersonal relationships and a job, fall to the wayside. His life is all Big Blue, all the time.
The scariest thing about Paul is just how realistic he seems; how utterly probable it is that there could be someone so single-mindedly obsessed with a sports team that it consumes their existence. Resisting any urge to condescend or judge, Mr. Siegel (who also wrote the screenplay) plops the character in a glum, depressed Staten Island milieu of strip malls, scuzzy bars and gray days and simply lets his story unfold. When a shocking accident — not to be revealed here — causes Paul to directly impact the team’s season, he’s faced with the utmost crisis of conscience.
Continue reading “Grid-Iron Obsession Clotheslines Hapless Fan” »
MOVIE REVIEW
No Impact Man (2009)
Oscilloscope Laboratories
In November 2007, Colin Beavan and his family concluded a yearlong “experiment” in which they used no form of carbon-emitting transportation, watched no television, used no electricity and ultimately made as minute an environmental impact as humanly possible. Zero impact was the initial intention, in fact; but the end result was closer to little than none. The fact that the world is still polluting and wasting energy in excess just as it was in November 2006 proves that Mr. Beavan’s endeavor hasn’t caused a worldwide change. Ironically, it’s precisely that questionable success of Mr. Beavan’s plan that gives “No Impact Man,” a documentary from Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein that chronicles the 365-day mission, its winning edge. The family’s good intentions aren’t used as abrasively guilt-pushing tactics, but as catalysts for a compelling study of the plights of nobility. Light and accessible in tone, “No Impact Man” succeeds as more of a human-interest piece than a green-conscious, save-the-world plea.
Continue reading “An Inconvenient Trudge” »
MOVIE REVIEW
At the Edge of the World (2009)
AFI Dallas International Film Festival
Dan Stone’s “At the Edge of the World” is one of those rare documentaries that could easily function as a compelling fiction thriller. It’s a pirate story masquerading as a message movie, the tale of a band of environmental activist marauders who willingly surrender all material comforts and personal connections to spend months combating whaling ships in the southern seas. Superbly shot from a wealth of angles and perspectives and edited to emphasize the tension in their quest, it’s a grand entertainment that only offers time for reflection once the lights go up.
Continue reading “All’s Well That Ends Whaling” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Halloween II (2009)
Marsha LaMarca/Dimension Films
Those dizzying, chilling and iconic synthesizers — the theme music for John Carpenter’s original 1978 “Halloween” — are nowhere to be heard throughout Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II.” In his first stab at reinventing “Halloween,” Mr. Zombie weaved Mr. Carpenter’s self-orchestrated score in and out of the film, from the most inspired of moments to the most unfitting. When the tune would creep into a mundane scene of dialogue, Mr. Zombie seemed pinned down to reminding audiences of his film’s predecessor. The 2007 version’s destructive second half — essentially Mr. Carpenter’s entire film lazily condensed into one hour — could be explained in similar fashion. “Halloween II” saves the synthesizers for its last shot (a final close-up taken straight out of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”), a nod to Mr. Carpenter’s groundwork that’s more of an afterthought than a salute. Mr. Zombie’s sequel is only a traditional “Halloween” film by title and character names, more so for worse than better.
Continue reading “Home for the Holiday” »
MOVIE REVIEW
World's Greatest Dad (2009)
Magnolia Pictures
It takes less than five minutes to realize that the moniker of “World’s Greatest Dad” could only be bestowed on high-school teacher Lance Clayton (Robin Williams) with the highest sense of irony. That’s about when it becomes apparent that the main character of writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait’s sharp new film – a single father raising teenage son Kyle (Daryl Sabara) – has failed at his most important job.
Continue reading “Death Becomes Smoochy” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Post Grad (2009)
Suzanne Tenner/Fox Searchlight Pictures
More than four decades after “The Graduate,” the confusion of the first post-college summer — in which the familiar ecosystems of the university suddenly transform into the far more challenging ones of the real world — has remained a potent cinematic subject. Unfortunately, the makers of “Post Grad” pretty much botch it.
Continue reading “Just One Word: Plastics” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Headless Woman (2008)
Strand Releasing
An existential mystery about an amnesiac woman reorienting herself back to her world after sustaining a head trauma in a car accident, Argentine director Lucrecia Martel’s “The Headless Woman” challenges our perceptions of class, gender, profession, memory and the interpersonal relationships that collectively form our identities. Mesmerizingly sweeping and hazy, the film follows Verónica (María Onetto) as she attempts to fake her way back into her marriage, job and daily routines as if everything is just fine, thank you. We gather clues to her former self by watching her passively allowing everyone in her life to take the lead in every interaction. But while she seems to be successfully fooling her family, friends and colleagues, Verónica loses her grip on reality when she comes to believe that she has accidentally killed someone in the very car accident that erased her memory.
Continue reading “A Woman Under the Voidance” »