MOVIE REVIEW
Adoration (2009)
Sophie Giraud/Sony Pictures Classics
Atom Egoyan’s “Adoration” takes a powerful, simple subject and mucks up its exploration with elaborate stylistic complications and moments of pure over direction. At its core is the grief-stricken story tinged with guilt, of a teenager learning to cope with the accidental death of his parents years earlier. Mr. Egoyan transforms that narrative into a murky rendition of the seedier side of the Web, and hampers it through the high-concept development of a premise centered on a convoluted role-playing assignment taken on with gusto by the main character and a central figure in his life.
Continue reading “Caught in the Web, Where the Truth Lies” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Management (2009)
Suzanne Hanover/Samuel Goldwyn Films
If, as some people believe, that the best comedy is grounded in truth, then it is no wonder that “Management” falls so flat on its face. The film begins with an unbelievable scenario and then proceeds to get progressively sillier as it goes along. Not that there is anything inherently wrong in silly – Monty Python made a pretty good career out of it – but it needs to work in conjunction with “funny” to be successful, and “funny” is not a word that springs to mind in the case of “Management.”
Continue reading “I’ll Be There for You, Literally” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Star Trek (2009)
Industrial Light & Magic/Paramount Pictures
Few cinematic ventures could be more fraught with peril than a revamping of the “Star Trek” franchise. No single pop phenomenon of the last half of the 20th century has amassed a more expansive, devoted following, and most ardent Trekkies tend to react to any changes to the canon as one might respond to the murder of a family member. Couple that with the fact that the most recent movies and TV spinoffs suffered a precipitous drop in quality and director J. J. Abrams can truly be said to have had his work cut out for him.
Continue reading “Boldly Revisit Where No Man Has Gone Before” »
Sophie Giraud/Sony Pictures Classics
The Museum of the Moving Image hosted the New York premiere of "Adoration" on April 27, which included a Q&A with the director, Atom Egoyan, and two of the lead actors, Scott Speedman and Devon Bostick. David Schwartz, chief curator at the Museum of the Moving Image, moderated the discussion.
"Adoration," like many of Mr. Egoyan's films, is one that deftly plays with timelines and chronology in storytelling. Mr. Egoyan discussed this style as simply how he thinks and develops narratives, and spoke about cinematography as a tool to help break down the various moments in time. Certain scenes are rosy, softly-focused, and others slightly more surreal, giving the audience hints of un-reality and imagination. While there are scenes that veer into the sentimental, Mr. Egoyan responded to an audience question by saying that he doesn't consider his films to be melodramatic in the least. He talked about his attempt to shine a light on the complexity and nuances of relationships, while melodrama aims to simplify and polarize. He did concede, laughingly, that he had recently won the Douglas Sirk Award, so perhaps there was some truth to the suggestion of melodrama in his work.
Continue reading “Application of Artistic License” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
Ron Batzdorff/Warner Bros. Pictures
The best thing about "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" is that it makes no pretense to be anything other than the formulaic romantic comedy that it is. In its cheeky refurbishment of the familiar premise of Charles Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol," the film takes a certain kind of unabashed delight in its own predictability. The entertainment value comes from a series of wonderfully over-the-top performances and a string of well-placed one-liners.
Continue reading “Hunter Becomes Haunted” »
MOVIE REVIEW
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Michael Muller/20th Century Fox
It’s fair to question whether the “X-Men” cinematic franchise would be remotely viable were it not for the presence of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, its bad-ass centerpiece and seemingly the only mutant more prone to kicking butt than moping. He oozes charisma in the role, snarling and pounding away at his enemies with gusto while projecting wells of anger sprung forth from deep, hidden pain.
So it’s perfectly logical that he’d serve as the focal point of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” the first spin-off. The film, directed by Gavin Hood from a screenplay by David Benioff and Skip Woods, reveals the tumultuous, century-spanning back story that led Wolverine (née James Logan) to Prof. Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his team. It begins with the defining traumatic event of his childhood, spans the major American wars, incorporates his brief time working on an illicit operation spearheaded by William Stryker (Danny Huston) and culminates with his quest for blood years later, after Victor Creed/Sabertooth (Liev Schreiber) murders Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins).
Continue reading “Stalked in the Forest, Too Close to Hide” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Serious Moonlight (2009)
Will McGarry/Serious Moonlight, LLC
“Serious Moonlight” reaffirms what “Waitress” proved: The murder of Adrienne Shelly not only robbed the world of a mother, wife and talented actress, but an incredibly gifted and incisive filmmaking mind. Here Cheryl Hines directs one of Shelly’s unproduced screenplays, using the sort of elaborate battle-of-the-sexes setup intrinsic to the films of classic verbal stylists like Howard Hawks to arrive at some heartfelt human truths.
Continue reading “Duct-Taping the Knot” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Sleep Dealer (2008)
Maya Entertainment
Intellectually and technologically ambitious, "Sleep Dealer" falls short due to execution. With the theme of electronic connectivity coupled with artificial intelligence, the film draws inevitable comparisons to "The Matrix." But "Sleep Dealer" is easier to recognize and relate to, perhaps because entities like Facebook and Twitter have annexed our virtual lives. This film adds commerce to the equation, allowing the consumption of memories as well as military strikes portrayed on reality television. It’s too bad the film falls short.
Continue reading “Information Superhighway to the Danger Zone” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Limits of Control (2009)
Teresa Isasi-Isasmendi/Focus Features
In “The Limits of Control,” Jim Jarmusch disappears so thoroughly into his elliptical style that he’s made an impossibly obtuse, arid film. It’s a vague abstraction of images, albeit ones framed with dreamlike, painterly gusto by rock-star DP Christopher Doyle. An exercise in gaudy self-indulgence, the film plods along through a series of cumbersome encounters, testing not the limits of control, but of patience.
Continue reading “Hit Man of La Mancha” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Good Guy (2010)
Walter Thomson/Tribeca Film Festival
“See how far a little trust can get ya?” Such phrases slide easily out of Tommy Fielding’s (Scott Porter) mouth in Julio DePietro’s “The Good Guy.” A clean-cut, smooth-talking Wall Street salesman, Tommy invites a kind of congenial admiration. He’s slick, but he doesn’t seem sly; he’s great at his job, but he doesn’t come across as arrogant. Above all, he’s charming to a fault and perfectly gallant toward his new girlfriend, Beth (Alexis Bledel). At least, that’s what he’ll have you believe for the first half of the film.
Continue reading “Tools of the Trading Floor” »